Defining Family
by DramaLexy
Summary: Set after "Ripple Effect". What happens to Janet and the rest of the alternate SG-1 team after the episode? How does it affect our reality? Jack/Sam
1. Prologue

TITLE: Defining Family

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

SUMMARY: Set after "Ripple Effect". What happens to Janet and the rest of the alternate SG-1 team after the episode? How does it affect our reality?

DISCLAIMER: I don't own, you don't sue.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I first came up with a little kernel of an idea for this during the final season of SG1. I kept kicking it around, letting it grow a bit at a time, and finally a few weeks ago I was inspired to really start writing. I've been a Sam/Jack shipper for a long time, but this is my first story for them. Reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

After days of chaos, there was now only one dialing sequence left before relative normalcy would be restored at the SGC. The parallel universe versions of Janet, Mitchell, Martouf, and Jackson joined Sam, Daniel, Teal'c, and General Landry in the Gateroom.

"Have all the other teams left, sir?" Janet asked.

He nodded. "You're the last ones to go."

"It was nice working with you again, Sam," Martouf told her before kissing her on the cheek. "Your presence has been sorely missed on our team."

She returned his smile. "Just out of curiosity, where did I go?"

Martouf looked away, but Janet smiled "Maternity leave," she told the duplicate of her friend before giving her a hug.

"We have something for you," Landry told the team before Daniel stepped forward with a large yellow case. He opened it to show them the contents. "The cure to the Prior's plague," the General explained. There were a lot of raised eyebrows.

"Thank you, General," Janet told him. Daniel handed the case to Mitchell before giving her a hug.

"It's good to see you again," he softly told her.

"You, too."

Teal'c also came forward and gave her a hug. "May it not be the last time." She nodded.

"Well," she said after rejoining her teammates, "We'd love to stay, but we have a planet to save." The idea of what was in Mitchell's hands had her almost giddy. They'd been working so hard and now to finally have the reward…

* * *

It wasn't an instant fix, of course. It took two days of round-the-clock work to get the cure out to the planet's population. They'd already lost a few thousand, and it would take time before a final death toll would be known, but it appeared as though they had won this battle.

Janet was totally fatigued, but there was one more thing she needed to do before finally going home. She headed upstairs to the general's office and knocked on the open doorframe to get his attention. Jack looked up from the papers in front of him. "What is it, Doc?" he asked.

"Go home, sir."

He shook his head. "There's still too much – "

"You're not much use to anyone at the moment. Everyone in this base is completely wiped. Besides, I figure you're better off going on my order than waiting until your wife starts looking for you."

Jack smiled a little, looking over at the picture that was on his desk. It had been taken two weeks earlier; Sam was seated on a bed in the infirmary with their newborn daughter in her arms. Their four-year-old son was sitting beside her, beaming for the camera as he held his baby sister's tiny hand in the palm of his own. Sam had been exhausted, but she'd never looked more beautiful to him than on that day. Thinking of the three of them had kept him going during their latest crisis, and he knew that Janet was right. He needed to go home. Sam probably wouldn't be very happy with him if he left her alone with the kids for one more night.

"Okay, okay, I'm going," he told Janet. She nodded, satisfied that she'd won that battle. As she turned to head back out the door, Jack spoke up again. "You know, Doc, somehow I never thought it would be this hard."

"What?"

"Balancing them and this job. I mean, I took a desk job so that I'd be around more, and now…"

Janet offered him a sad smile. "I don't think any of us saw this coming. Have a good night, sir."

"You, too." Jack looked down at the picture one more time before grabbing a coat and leaving. After so many years of solitude, he very much liked the idea that someone was waiting on him.

* * *

TBC...


	2. Arrivals

**TWENTY-ONE MONTHS LATER, OUR REALITY...**

It was a quiet spring day at the SGC. The Ori threat had been defeated and the galaxy was rebuilding. The days were generally a lot less eventful than they had previously been, but no one was really complaining.

Sam was up in the control room, working on some bugs in the software that had just been upgraded. Eleven years after first designing the dialing software for the Stargate, she still liked to be involved whenever any changes were made. It was an opportunity to think back on how much her life had changed.

A smile crossed her face as a mug of coffee was set down on the desk beside her. "Thanks, Walter," she said as she reached for it.

"No problem," the technician replied as he sat in the chair beside hers. "Got any plans for the weekend?" It was early on a Friday afternoon and most of the base's personnel were eager for a bit of a break from work.

Sam looked down at her keyboard. "Yeah, I do," she replied as she started typing again. She didn't elaborate further. Her SG-1 teammates knew exactly what she was going for the weekend – a quick jaunt to Washington DC – but there was no need for that info to become public knowledge. It had been far too long since she'd been able to get away to visit Jack and Sam was greatly looking forward to the trip. They had begun a long-distance relationship shortly after Jack moved to Washington DC over two years earlier. Neither was entirely sure where it was going, but they tried to see each other whenever they could.

Walter was undeterred by her lack of details. "I'm going to be busy, too," he started to tell her, but was interrupted when the Gate started to light up from an incoming wormhole.

"Have we received an IDC?" Landry asked as he came down the stairs.

Walter checked the screen again and shook his head. "No, Sir."

"Audio?"

"Uh, coming through now," Walter replied before putting the stream on speaker.

"Stargate Command, this is Dr. Janet Fraiser."

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "Okay, definitely not was I was expecting…"

"Leave the iris closed," Landry ordered. If someone was trying to infiltrate the base, they were going to have to do a lot better than this.

"I know you're going to think this is a trick," the voice continued. "I would, too. But it's not. I've been to your reality before."

"Did she just say 'reality'?" Walter asked. Sam nodded slightly, intently listening.

"You gave my team the cure to the Prior's plague. Please, I'm requesting access to the SGC."

Landry hesitated before nodding to Walter. "Make sure the security team is ready, just in case."

Several guards had assembled with their guns at the ready before Walter sent the command to open the iris. As Sam and Landry watched through the control room window, Janet stepped through the gate, holding a little boy's hand and carrying a toddler. The gate shut down behind them.

"Stand down," Landry ordered the guards over the intercom before he and Sam headed down the stairs to the Gateroom.

"What's going on?" Sam asked. Janet was obviously hurt, with dried blood on the torn left sleeve of her BDUs and cuts and scrapes on her face. The children's clothes were muddy and a little ragged; they'd obviously all been through something very bad.

"Get a med team up here," Landry ordered.

"I'm fine," Janet tried to protest. Sam reached to take the toddler from her before she collapsed of exhaustion. "Thank you for letting me through."

"What happened?" Sam asked again. "Who are these guys?" She indicated the children.

Janet put a hand on the little boy's shoulder. He was looking back and forth between the adults with wide, curious eyes. "This is Jacob Daniel O'Neill," she introduced him, "And that's Abigail Charlotte O'Neill," she added for the toddler that seemed decidedly comfortable in Sam's arms.

"O'Neill?" Sam and General Landry asked at the same time, surprise plain on both of their faces.

Janet nodded. "Their parents are Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill."

Both officers struggled to process that news, especially Sam. "Why did you come here?" Landry asked the doctor.

"I had to. I promised I'd make sure they were safe."

"Safe from whom?" Sam asked, although she had a feeling that she already knew the answer.

"The Ori," Janet replied just as the medical team charged in. They instantly began attending to everyone and taking them to the infirmary. The rest of their questions would have to wait.

* * *

Down in the infirmary, Janet proved true the saying that doctors make the worst patients. Carolyn wanted to redo the rough stitches that had been used to close a gash on her arm, but she had no interest. "I need to tell you what happened," she insisted to Sam and Landry. "Please." They finally agreed, and the General waved his daughter away.

"What happened with the cure?" Sam asked as she sat beside her friend. "It didn't work?"

Janet shook her head. "No, it did…And that might have been worse." She sighed heavily as she remembered the nightmare that the past year and a half had been.

"Most of the planet's population was saved; SG-1 got back with the cure just in time. We continued to oppose the Ori throughout the galaxy, but our ability to fight back against them only made them more dangerous. About four months ago, they finally decided that Earth had to be destroyed, as a lesson to anyone else who thought of challenging their power." Sam and Landry's eyes widened, but neither said a word.

"We tried everything that we possibly could to stop them," Janet continued. "Our ships were no match for theirs, though. The Samantha Carter from my world was onboard the Apollo during a last stand. It was disabled, and the Daedalus just barely managed to transport the crew down to the SGC before it was destroyed. The Daedalus wasn't as lucky, though. There wasn't enough time to save their crew… Daniel was still on the ship when..." She paused there, too choked up to continue, and Sam gently reached to take her hand.

"We tried to evacuate as many people as possible to the Alpha Site. It just… it was all so quick. God, it was fast. Sam had been hurt on the Apollo, so I was able to make sure that she got through, and the little ones. Jack… He stayed at the SGC, trying to wait for just one more group of people, but they never came through." The last time she'd seen him, he'd been in the control room, waving them on. They'd kept in radio contact with the SGC viacthe gate in order to track the progress of the evacuation, but then the gate had suddenly disconnected and they weren't able to redial Earth. There was nothing left to dial.

The idea of Jack dying left Sam cold. In this universe, she had come so close to losing him so many times, but there had always been a miracle. Apparently in that reality, his luck had run out. It was sobering.

"How many made it?" Landry quietly asked.

"Less than two thousand," Janet replied, and the General almost choked. _Two thousand out of six billion…_

Sam slowly nodded, unable to imagine living through all of that. "You said that you promised to make sure that the children were safe?"

"Yeah… We didn't have enough of anything at the Alpha site, certainly not supplies. The Odyssey and Prometheus survived Earth's destruction, but were badly damaged. With their hyperdrives under repair, it took a few weeks for them to reach us. By then, my Sam… She tried so hard to hold on, but…" She took a shuddery deep breath. "She had broken ribs that punctured a lung. We tried surgery, but… we just didn't have what we needed. She got an infection… she didn't make it."

Almost as if it wasn't of her own volition, Sam turned around to look at the two children seated on a bed across the room. The idea that they'd lost both of their parents so quickly and been left alone at such a young age in a universe that was so incredibly cruel… She blinked back a few tears of sympathy.

"Before she died," Janet quietly continued, "She made me promise to take care of them and make sure that they were safe. And I would do anything for them, but… there's nothing for them there."

"So you brought them here," Landry stated.

She nodded. "The Odyssey and Prometheus tried to take everyone to the Pegasus Galaxy, to Atlantis. They were our only hope. But they couldn't take everyone at once...and the Ori found the Alpha Site in the meantime. We barely got away through the gate, and now... there's nothing. It scares me when I think about Jake and Abbie's futures. I don't want them to be waiting for the end; they deserve more than that. Their parents would have wanted them to have more. Martouf recreated a bridge between our realities so that I could bring them here. You helped us once before and I thought that you might do it again."

* * *

TBC...


	3. Decisions

Janet finally gave in and let Carolyn check her out and treat her injuries. Sam stepped away to go watch over the children – children that she didn't know, but genetically could have been her own. It was a pretty heady thought.

Jacob had a gash on his forehead that had required a couple stitches, but his light brown, bowl-cut hair hid it pretty well. He had Jack's brown eyes, which were carefully watching every single thing that the nurses did. His arms were protectively encircling his little sister as Abigail sat on his lap. Sam noticed that he hadn't let the blonde-haired, blue-eyed cherub get farther than arm's reach from him since they'd arrived in the infirmary. It seemed like his protectiveness had served her well, though; the toddler barely had a scratch on her.

One of the nurses reached to take Abigail in order to get her cleaned up and changed out of her muddy, torn clothes. Jacob roughly pushed the woman's hands away. "Hey, it's okay," Sam tried to tell him as she stepped toward them. "They're going to take real good care of her."

He shook his head hard. "I'm not letting her go. I can't."

Sam decided to try a different tactic. "How about you come, too?" she suggested. "You can keep an eye on Abigail and you can get cleaned up and changed too." Jacob eyed her for a moment, but finally nodded.

After both children were cleaned up and re-dressed in new clothes, they returned to the main room. Jacob again wanted Abigail to sit with him, but the toddler had her own ideas. Once a nurse set her down on her feet on the bed, she turned to Sam with her arms outstretched.

"Mama!" she exclaimed as she reached for a hug. The Colonel was taken aback, but couldn't help but oblige. There was very little chance that they could get the tiny girl to understand what had just happened to her. Was there a point in even trying to explain? Or was it better to just let the toddler find some comfort wherever she wanted to?

Jacob watched them for a moment, his eyes wide in shock. Anger, betrayal, and sadness all flickered across his features. Sam was about to say something to him – she wasn't sure what, but something – but before she could, he suddenly burst into tears. He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, trying to wipe the tears away, but to no avail.

"Jacob – " Sam started, reaching for him, but he jumped away from her like her touch was fire. The little boy scrambled off the bed and ran across the room to Janet. She held him as he clung to her.

"It's okay, buddy," she quietly told him. "It's gonna be okay…" Janet looked up as Sam joined them with Abigail. "Jake's been through a lot. He was by the gate, waiting, when we lost his dad. And he was with his mom, when…" There was no need to finish.

Sam gently reached to put a hand on the boy's shoulder, but he shrugged her off. Was just seeing her face causing him more pain? The desire to find some way to help him was so strong that her heart ached. "I'm sorry, Jake," she quietly told him. "I'm so sorry…"

* * *

It was a challenge, and took a couple hours, but Janet and Sam finally managed to get both children to go to sleep. Jake only agreed to even try if Abigail was in the same bed, but the toddler didn't seem to mind. Frankly, she was handling all of this a lot better than anyone else was.

Once the siblings were finally sleeping, Sam stood nearby, just watching over them. A million different thoughts were flying through her head, and she wasn't sure what to make of any of them.

"Here you go," Janet quietly told her as she joined her, offering a mug of tea.

"Thanks," Sam replied as she accepted it. They both remained in silence for a long moment. "I don't know what to do," the Colonel finally spoke up.

"About what?"

"About them. I mean…I'm not their mother. What right do I have to pretend? But at the same time, how can I not take care of them?"

Janet smiled slightly. "I remember that feeling."

"They're beautiful," Sam continued, gently reaching down with one hand to brush a lock of hair from Abigail's face. "They don't deserve what they've been through. If I could erase that somehow…but I know I can't. The only thing I can do is give them a new home now."

The doctor just nodded. She'd had all of the same thoughts when she took in Cassie. Except Cassie hadn't actually been her flesh and blood. "It's up to you, Sam."

"No, it's not," she replied. "I don't even feel like there's a choice involved. I have to do it. Plain and simple."

"They're staying?" Janet asked.

Sam nodded. "They're staying."

It was obvious that took a large amount of weight off of the doctor's shoulders. She sighed a little and smiled. "Thank you."

"What about you?" Sam asked after a sip of her tea.

Janet frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You're going to stay, too, aren't you?"

She turned to her friend, and Sam could tell from the look in her eyes what her answer would be. "I can't," Janet finally said. "I have to go back."

"Back to what? You said yourself there's nothing there."

"Nothing for them," she corrected. "I know it's a losing battle, Sam, but I still feel like I have to fight. It's still my battle."

"Jacob and Abigail need you," Sam pointed out. "You're the one person that's familiar to them in this very strange world."

She shook her head. "They'll be fine."

"Then I need you," she added. "I need my friend."

"I'm not the woman you knew," Janet pointed out.

"It doesn't matter. We were close in your reality, too, weren't we?"

She nodded and looked away. Janet had been best friends with the Samantha Carter from her reality. Her death had been a hard blow on top of so many other losses. It had been made even worse by the fact that, as a doctor, she had been helpless to keep her from slipping away. Seeing this Sam now was both a painful reminder of that failure and a comfort. "Yes," she shakily confirmed. "Yes, we were."

"Then that's another reason to stay. And Cassie – Cassie could use a mother."

Janet nearly dropped her cup. "Cassie's alive here?"

Sam froze. "Yeah. She's going to school at UC Colorado Springs. Janet…"

The doctor wiped at her welling eyes. "I lost my Cassie. There was this virus, from her planet. The Goa'uld – "

"Nirrti," Sam filled in. "She was sick with the same thing here. We were able to find the Goa'uld and cure Cassie just in time."

Janet looked down. "We didn't find her."

Sam stepped over to the phone and picked up the receiver. "I'm going to call her."

"Sam – "

"I've spent the past year and a half wishing that I could tell Cassie that I'd seen you. I'm calling her."

* * *

It was late, but Cassie knew from the tone of Sam's voice that this was important. There were few people on the planet that Cassie trusted like her friend/guardian, so she agreed to come over to the SGC, even without being told why (despite asking multiple times).

"Now will you tell me what's going on?" the 22-year-old asked when Sam met her at the entrance to the base.

"No," she replied as they got on the elevator.

Cassie rolled her eyes; the game was getting old. "This isn't funny, Sam. Is something wrong?"

"Everything's fine, I promise. There's just something I needed you to see."

"And it couldn't wait until tomorrow?"

Sam shook her head. "It's waited long enough."

Once they were on the correct level, deep within the mountain, Sam led her to one of the visitor rooms and opened the door. Cassie was rendered absolutely speechless when she saw who was waiting for her.

"Oh, sweetheart," Janet whispered.

"Mom?" she finally choked out before throwing herself into her arms. Sam just smiled as she watched them together.

Janet met her friend's eyes for a moment and smiled. "Thank you," she mouthed to her.

"You'll stay?" Sam mouthed back. Janet nodded.

* * *

TBC...


	4. Telling Jack

After leaving Janet and Cassie to talk in private – after all, there was going to be a lot of explaining to do – Sam knew that she had one more phone call that she needed to make. And despite the late hour, she knew it was something that had to be done that night.

She headed down to her lab and shut the door behind her for privacy. The number that she dialed was one that she knew by heart.

"Hello?" Jack sleepily grumbled into the phone when he answered. Sam flinched slightly; it was even later in DC than it was in Colorado.

"Jack, it's me."

The sound of her voice combined with the late hour woke him up a bit. "Sam? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Well… it's a very long story," she answered, knowing how much he was going to hate the ambiguity. "I know that I'm supposed to be getting on a plane in the morning to come see you, but I really need you to come here instead."

"Why?"

"I'll explain when you get here."

Now he was getting annoyed. "Carter – " he tried to 'pull rank', but she wouldn't let him.

"Jack, trust me, this is NOT something to do over the phone."

He sighed heavily. Apparently he didn't have any choice but to do what she wanted – and he didn't like it. "You promise that you're all right?"

"I'm fine, I swear. The General's arranged for a plane to be waiting for you at Andrews."

"All right. I'll see you soon."

* * *

After hanging up, Sam headed back to check on Janet and Cassie. The two were sitting together in the room, trying to take everything in. Both had teary eyes when they looked up at Sam. "How are you doing?" she asked Cassie.

"A little confused," she admitted with a watery laugh. "This… this is pretty crazy. But thank you, so much, for telling me."

"The General is going to want to speak with you in the morning, Janet, but he authorized you leaving for the night."

"You can stay with me," Cassie immediately offered. "We can keep talking, figure things out."

"Are you sure?" Janet asked, and the younger woman nodded. "Okay. What about Jake and Abbie?" she asked Sam.

"I'm going to stay with them tonight. We can talk some more tomorrow; Jack's going to be here in the morning."

"All right."

"I'll walk you guys out," she offered.

"I always get lost when I come," Cassie informed Janet with a sheepish smile.

"Well, this place is kinda of like a labyrinth."

They were heading toward the elevator when they saw Daniel step out of his lab further down the hall. "He's working late," Janet commented to Sam, who nodded. All of the SG-1 team members had briefly come down to the infirmary earlier in the evening, but Janet had been busy trying to help Sam with Jake and Abbie. She was looking forward to getting to actually sit down and talk with them once things calmed a bit, especially Daniel.

She was about to call hello to him, but then someone else walked out of his lab as well. Vala was pestering him, as usual, but he didn't seem to mind so much.

Sam smiled as she watched. "They're like an old married couple sometimes," she told Janet, then noticed the expression of surprise on the other woman's face. "Are you okay?"

"F-fine," she lied. Sam looked back toward her teammates as they disappeared around the corner. It hadn't really been that big of a surprise to the other members of SG-1 when Daniel and Vala started a relationship, but apparently it was a shock for a newcomer to their reality. As she watched Janet try to recover from her surprise, she began to wonder exactly how many other things had been so different in her reality.

* * *

Once Janet and Cassie had left, Sam returned to the infirmary to watch over Jake and Abbie. She ended up falling asleep in the chair beside their bed and had a crick in her neck by the time she was awakened by a hand landing on her shoulder. She looked up to see Jack standing beside her.

"What time is it?" she quietly asked as she stretched.

"A little after 0600."

That told her a lot about how concerned he must have been. "I didn't mean you had to leave immediately, Jack."

"I wasn't going back to sleep after a phone call like that. What's going on? Who are they?"

"Jacob and Abigail," she told him, "O'Neill."

Jack blinked. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Um…you got some 'splaining to do, Sam."

She smiled slightly. "They're from a parallel universe. Remember when I told you about a mission a year and a half ago where we came home to find out that there was already another SG-1 here? And fourteen more came through the gate behind us."

Jack shrugged. "Yeah, vaguely." To him, Sam's mind was a limitless storage facility; practically everything she'd ever learned was still there and neatly filed. He'd barely kept all the mission reports and such straight when he'd been on SG-1 or heading the SGC; expecting him to keep track of their adventures after he left for Washington was pretty unrealistic.

"Well, they are the children of our alternate universe counterparts."

"You mean… They're Carter-O'Neills?" Sam nodded. "What are they doing here? Don't tell me that someone found another mirror."

Sam shook her head. The only quantum mirror that she knew about had been destroyed years earlier at Area 51 – and that probably wasn't a bad thing. "No. They were brought here because… because we're dead, their Earth is gone, and their galaxy is probably going to be lost to the Ori. They were brought here to be safe."

Jack looked back to the kids. "Damn," he softly murmured. He wasn't sure what answer he'd been expecting, but that wasn't it.

Sam considered admonishing him about language usage around the children, but let it go. After all, she wasn't sure what would have been a suitable and child-appropriate thing to say in this situation.

"Brought by who?" Jack suddenly asked. "If we're dead…"

Sam smiled slightly; the idea of getting her best friend back was still unbelievable and amazing. "Janet. In their reality, she was still alive. She'd come here before on that mission I was talking about, so she knew this reality was safe."

Jack nodded. "Lucky for them."

They both looked down as they heard Jake start mumbling in his sleep. They couldn't understand his words, but his face was pinched and he was trying to fight an invisible foe – classic signs of a nightmare. _And he has so much to have nightmares about…_ Sam couldn't help but think as she carefully transferred Abbie to the next bed over so that her brother wouldn't hit her. Jack, meanwhile, tried to wake the little boy up.

"Easy, there, pal," he told him. "You're okay, it's just a dream."

Jake's eyes snapped open, and he spent a long moment trying to take in where he was. Confusion was plain across his face, and it mixed with surprise when he realized who was standing over him. "Dad?" he whispered, wide-eyed. "I'm dreaming," he told himself, "I'm still dreaming." Jake shut his eyes tight and rubbed at them, but Jack was still standing there when he reopened them.

"You're not dreaming, pal," he quietly told the boy. "And I'm not your dad. Not really."

Reality seemed to come back like a ton of bricks. Jacob went completely still, and his lip trembled for a moment. However, he firmly set his jaw and no tears escaped. He quickly turned away from them and buried his face in his pillow.

"Jake," Sam started, reaching for his shoulder, but he still wouldn't let her touch him.

"Go away," he demanded as he pushed her hand away.

"We're not going anywhere, Jake," she tried to tell him, but that statement only seemed to make things worse.

"You can't promise!" he shot back. "Go away! Leave me alone!"

* * *

TBC...


	5. Haunted by the Past

Jake eventually got upset enough that Carolyn asked Jack and Sam to step out for a little while. Jake didn't even seem to mind that they took Abigail with them, as long as they left him. The toddler was fully awake after all the commotion.

"I don't know what to do for him," Sam quietly admitted once they were out in the hallway.

"I think it's just going to take time," Jack replied. "I don't think I'd trust us if I was in his place."

"I just don't want him feeling so alone, not after what he's been through."

He sighed. "Yeah."

Abbie was repeatedly saying "Oh-oh, oh-oh," and Jack finally realized what it meant.

"You hungry?" he asked her, and got a nod in response. "She wants cheerios," he told Sam.

She frowned. "How do you know that?" He'd only been there for an hour; how did he know things that she didn't?

Jack swallowed hard, looking away. "Charlie used to do the same thing."

Sam studied him carefully; she had wondered earlier if this whole situation would end up being too much for him deal with. They'd had brief conversations over the years about his son, but she hadn't gotten much from them besides the fact that he still felt deeply guilty for Charlie's death. The previous night, she hadn't tried calling him immediately because she wasn't sure if it was a sound idea – how would he react to being surprised with the news that he, in a way, suddenly had two more kids? Logic had won out in the end. There was no way that she could keep something like this from him, especially since she was planning on taking care of Jacob and Abigail. Jack had to know the truth, and now she reminded herself that she could deal with the fallout, no matter what that entailed.

_I don't need him in order to do this,_ she told herself. _I really want him, but I don't need him._ "I guess we better go get her some breakfast," Sam quietly said.

* * *

They headed for the mess hall, and Sam got a bowl of cheerios for Abigail while Jack got two cups of coffee. The pair stayed silent for a long time, watching as the toddler happily fed herself.

"We need to talk," Sam finally said.

Jack snorted. "Understatement of the year."

She smiled a little, but quickly sobered. "I know I'm the one who signed up for this," she told him. "I'm the one who agreed to Janet's request and I know I didn't talk to you first. I'm sorry for that."

He shook his head. "You did the only thing you could."

"I don't want to make any other decisions for you, Jack. I can take care of them, like I said I would, and you can be as involved or not involved as you want."

He looked up at her in surprise. "You think not being involved is an option?"

"Everything's an option. We've both got to pick what's going to work for us. I…I know this has to be hard for you. I don't want to make anything worse."

Jack wasn't going to lie to her and say it wasn't hard. Just looking at Jake… there were a lot of reminders. He'd never imagined that he'd once again be in a position where someone was deciding whether to trust him with a child – and asking him to decide if he trusted himself. "What do you want from me?" he softly asked. "A perfect little family with a white picket fence?"

Sam sighed a little, unsure what the answer to his question was. "I don't know, Jack." By this point in her life, she knew that perfection didn't exist and normal often seemed overrated. A family was something that she'd wanted, but in recent years, she'd let that goal slip away. Now that the wish had magically been granted… what did the future hold? Soccer games, ballet practice, and school plays? She was looking forward to it, but feared that Jack would be dreading it. The only thing she knew for sure was that she didn't want anything that he wasn't completely willing to give. "Maybe…maybe you should go back to DC."

He blinked. It was the easy way out, all neatly wrapped up with a bow. All he had to do was agree with her – logically, she couldn't get upset since she was the one who had suggested it. Jack felt guilty, but he couldn't make himself disagree. The fear was too strong. He couldn't imagine having Sam look at him with the same anger and disgust that Sara had. He couldn't let a mistake hurt her the same way.

"Uh, okay. You want me to stay a few days and help you get settled?" he asked. It seemed like the least he could do.

She shrugged, turning to focus on cleaning Abbie up. _I guess this IS too much for him to deal with_, she thought._ Better to know now than have us end up resenting each other later._ "If you want."

* * *

By the time Jack and Sam got back from breakfast, Jake had calmed down and eaten some of the food that one of the nurses brought him. "How are you doing?" Sam asked as she sat at the foot of his bed and put Abbie down.

Jake pushed his tray away and motioned for his sister to come over to him. "Fine," he curtly replied as he protectively got Abbie settled at his side.

Sam nodded. "Good. We were talking to Dr. Lam and she said you guys are ready to get out of here. That sound like a good idea?"

Curiosity overrode Jake's desire to stay non-talkative. "Where are we going?"

"You guys are going to stay at my house."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Your house? By yourself?"

Sam glanced up at Jack. "Um, yeah. I live here in Colorado Springs and Jack lives in Washington DC. That's…well, it's pretty far away from here."

"My mom and dad both lived here," he quietly pointed out. It was the first time he'd voluntarily talked about his life in his own reality.

"We know," Jack told him. "There are some things that are different here. This is one of them."

"It's going to take some adjustment for all of us," Sam assured him. "I know it's hard because we look like your mom and dad, but… we all know that we're not. All of us are going to have to get to know each other. Just know that we're going to take care of you, okay?"

"What do I call you?" Jake asked, his eyes downcast.

Sam and Jack exchanged looks; they hadn't thought about that part. "Well, since right now we're trying to be friends, how about we all call each other by our first names, like you would with your friends, okay?" she suggested. Jake nodded.

* * *

As they got everything set to leave, they realized that Sam wasn't really ready for Jake and Abbie to go home; there were several things one needs for small children that she didn't have.

"For starters," Jack told her as they stood in the hall outside the infirmary, "I can take your car and go get a car seat for Abbie."

"Thank you. One of the Airmen brought in some clothes that his kids have outgrown, so I'll get them dressed while you're gone. Then we can go shopping."

Jack nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Are you sure you can handle them both?"

"We'll be fine," she replied as she gave him her car keys. "Sure you can handle a car seat?"

He shrugged. "How hard can it be?"

As Jack soon found out, the answer was 'pretty hard.' Technology had come a long way since the last time he had to worry about a car seat. He was still trying to make sure the thing was properly buckled into the backseat of Sam's sedan when she brought Jake and Abbie outside.

"How's it going?" she asked in what was supposed to be an innocent tone. Jack saw right through her, though.

"Are you being insubordinate, Colonel?"

"Yes, Sir," she cheerily replied as she handed Abbie to him.

"It's been a while," he defensively told her. "You gotta have an engineering doctorate to put these things together now."

* * *

Their first stop was a furniture store. They decided to worry about the essentials that day, such as beds, and get other items later on. Clothes shopping would be an adventure for the following day. Jake barely said a handful of words through the whole expedition, and even getting those out was like pulling teeth. By the time they arrived at Sam's house, everyone was tired and there was still a lot of work to be done.

"What do you think about inviting Janet over for dinner?" Jack asked Sam as they started getting prepared to paint the room that would soon be Jake's.

"Sounds like a good plan. Maybe we can even put her to work in here."

Janet accepted the invitation, and brought Cassie with her for one more pair of hands. Assembling furniture and painting walls was going to take hours, so 'dinner' ended up just being delivered pizza. The evening was a lot of fun, though. Sam noticed that Jake seemed a lot more animated around Janet, and he got along well with Cassie.

"Thanks for coming," she told the other woman as they washed out a couple brushes and rollers in the kitchen. Jack, Jake, and Cassie had moved on to working on Jake's walls, and Abbie was asleep in her crib in the living room.

"No problem."

"How are you settling in?

"Pretty good." Janet had decided to stay at the SGC instead of Cassie's tiny campus apartment while she was working on getting her life sorted out. The 'official' story on her sudden reappearance was that she'd been incorrectly declared KIA four years earlier and was in fact MIA. The details of how she'd been found – and where – were classified, but that lie allowed Janet to take over the life of her counterpart from this reality. She was going to return to working at the Academy Hospital, and be on staff with the SGC as well.

"I was wondering," Sam carefully changed topics. "You said before that the Daniel from your universe was killed on the Daedalus."

Janet wouldn't look at her. "Yeah."

"You were close, weren't you?"

After a moment of hesitation, she nodded. "Yeah, we were."

Sam sighed, thinking of the scene with Daniel and Vala in the hallway at the SGC. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "Don't be. I mean…I'm alive, I have Cassie now, and I know Jake and Abbie are going to be okay… Do I have any right to ask for more?"

"Janet – "

But she didn't let her friend say anything else. Janet grabbed the brushes they'd just finished with and started toward Jake's room. "We should probably get back to work if we want to finish anytime soon." Sam finally nodded and followed her.

* * *

By 11PM, they were finally done. Jake had fallen asleep a while earlier out on the couch near his sister. Both children would move into their bedrooms the following night once the paint was dry. After Janet and Cassie left, Sam realized that the very long day was starting to catch up with her.

"Are you coming to bed?" she asked Jack when she realized that he'd stopped in the living room and was simply watching the two kids sleep. She figured that he had to be just as tired after his middle-of-the-night plane trip to Colorado.

"Uh, yeah, I'll be there in a while. I just want to make sure they're tucked in good."

Abbie was lying on her back, her little thumb dangling from her mouth. Jack pulled her blanket up, and then turned to Jake. He was almost hanging off the couch, so Jack carefully righted him. He couldn't help but think of Charlie; his son had also been an 'active sleeper.'

Jack sighed as he sat down at Jake's feet and watched him sleep. He'd never thought that he'd want to be a father again, but now… these two little people were starting to matter to him. And that was absolutely terrifying.

"I don't want to screw you guys up," he whispered. "I won't let that happen."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Thanks so much for the feedback I've gotten so far! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story. :-) I want your opinions for upcoming events in the story - what should happen with Janet/Daniel/Vala? I'm not really a shipper either way, so it'll be reader's choice where that goes.**


	6. Logistics

General Landry gave Sam three days to start getting the kids settled, but then had her and Jack come into his office for a talk. There were a lot of things that needed to get worked out since Jake and Abbie were staying.

Janet was waiting in the conference room when the four came up the steps, and Jake instantly ran to her for a hug. "How have you been doing?" she asked him.

"Okay," was his quiet, half-hearted reply. Janet exchanged a smile with Sam.

"Thanks for looking out for them for a little bit," the Colonel said as she handed Abbie over. "Hopefully this won't take too long." Janet had agreed to watch the kids while they met with the General.

"It's no problem," she replied. "I've got a couple hours before the training I'm supposed to be doing today, so maybe we'll go get a snack and do some exploring."

Once they had headed downstairs, Jack went over and knocked on Landry's closed door. "Come in!" they could hear him call.

"You wanted to see us, Sir?" Sam asked as they went inside.

"Yes, I did. Shut the door, please." They sat down in front of his desk. "How are things going?"

"It's taking some adjustment," she replied with a little smile. "No really major problems, though."

"Good. I wanted to talk to you about what the official story is going to be for the children. Obviously, we'd all have some explaining to do if anyone without the proper clearance was to hear that the children were biologically related to you both."

"There are some physical similarities that probably won't be ignored," Sam pointed out.

Landry raised an eyebrow. "Would you like to come up with an explanation for how you managed to get through two pregnancies without anyone noticing? I believe you were seen at both the Pentagon and the Air Force Academy within a month of when Abigail should have been born."

She cringed a little. "Point taken."

"Just to add to your scandal," Jack spoke up, "I was still your commanding officer when Jake would have been born. So, Hank, you have a good lie in mind?"

The other General smiled a little. "A couple new acquisitions from Toronto?" Jack snorted, remembering the story that they'd made up for Cassie when she arrived on Earth. "No, officially the children will have been born in California. Colonel Carter met them during a trip for your work with 'deep space radar telemetry.' We thought that it would make things less complicated if she was the only one on the paperwork."

"No," Jack spoke up. "My name's going on it, too." Two heads spun around to stare at him.

"I think that's going to throw up a few flags, Jack," Landry told him. The look Sam was giving him spoke of a similar sentiment. What rationale could they come up with for why he was adopting two children with a woman who was supposedly just his former second in command – other than the fact that she wasn't JUST his former 2IC? Jack knew that they were both right and that this would probably make things more difficult than they needed to be, but he wasn't changing his mind.

"I'm not going to let her end up with all of the responsibility in this," he told Landry. "I don't think that's fair."

The other General hadn't been on the short list of people who were privy to the details of Jack and Sam's relationship, but the looks they were giving each other made it very obvious that there was something going on behind the scenes. "Both of you; do me a favor," he told them. "I'm not going to ask for a confirmation or denial of anything. I just want you to think about how you want this to go. Whatever you decide is your business, but…just make sure you really think about it."

Sam nodded. "Yes, Sir."

* * *

Once they'd finished, they left Landry's office and were about to go downstairs to find Janet and the kids but Sam stopped. "What's wrong?" Jack asked her.

"You don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"Whether your name is on a piece of paper or not doesn't define your role in their lives. Like I said before, however much you want to be involved…" she trailed off, unsure how much more of her thoughts she should voice.

She was the one who had let him off the hook a few days earlier, and she was doing her very best not to be upset with him for actually doing it. But then he went and got her hopes up during the meeting when he asked to be included in plans for Jake and Abbie - was he changing his mind? Her feet had quickly been brought back down to the ground when he called the kids a 'responsibility'. And of course they were, but they were so much more than that, too. Did he really not get any enjoyment out of being with them? Was he only still in Colorado because he felt that he HAD to help her? This wasn't a short-term commitment, and if it wasn't something that he actually wanted, then she didn't want him to feel forced into it.

"You don't have to do this," she finally, quietly repeated.

"Technically, they've got my genes, too, right?" Jack asked.

Sam slowly nodded. "Yeah, although no one outside of the Stargate Program is going to know it."

"I know it. And you know it. I'm not changing my mind, so stop asking."

She watched him for a moment, wondering if this would be something that he'd regret later. Either way, she had to respect his sense of loyalty. "Thank you."

* * *

Janet took Jake and Abbie down to the mess hall to get some snacks while Sam and Jack were busy. After spending the last couple of months taking care of the kids, it was strange to not have them with her all the time anymore.

"How do you like your new bedroom?" she asked Jake as he worked his way through a little bowl of blue Jell-O.

He shrugged. "It's okay."

"I really liked the blue paint that you picked out for your walls."

"Yeah…it's kind of like my room was before."

She nodded. "Yeah, it is. Did you tell Sam what color to get for Abbie?" The obvious choice for the toddler's room would have been pink, but instead she had ended up with pale lavender walls, just like in her former home. Janet had assumed that was Jake's doing, but he shook his head.

"No," he told her, "Sam picked." It was another one of those strange coincidences that made this reality seem a little less foreign.

"Have you been sleeping okay?" Janet gently asked Jake. "Any more nightmares?"

He shrugged, his eyes focused on his snack. "I dunno." Which meant yes. It wasn't at all unexpected that Jake was having nightmares, considering what he'd been through, but the thing that concerned Janet was that he never told anyone about them. Ever.

"You know that you can talk to Sam, right?" she asked. "About anything. I know it's still a little hard right now, but – "

Jake shook his head. "She's not my mom."

"No, honey, she's not, but she still cares about you very much." Jake didn't respond.

They all looked up as someone stopped beside their table. "Hey," Daniel said. "I didn't expect to see you guys here. Is something wrong?"

Janet shook her head. "Sam and Jack are up with General Landry, so I got some company for a little while."

"I see. Are you guys settling in okay?" he asked Jake and Abbie. The little boy silently shrugged.

"He really does know how to talk," Janet assured him as she reached to gently ruffle Jake's hair.

The archeologist shook his head. "Nah, that's okay. I know how big of a hit it is to lose your parents. There's been a lot for them to adjust to."

She nodded. "Yeah, there has."

"I know it's been a lot for you, too," he added. "I'm glad that you decided to stay."

Janet could feel her cheeks redden. "Thanks… Me, too."

"I know we talked about it a little the last time you were here, but seeing you again now…I really have missed you."

"I-it wasn't me," she quietly reminded him.

"Yeah, I know. But still."

Before either could say anything else, Sam and Jack came into the mess hall. "You're all done?" Janet asked them. Sam nodded.

"Yep. Thanks again."

"No problem."

"Are you guys ready to head home?" Sam asked Jake and Abbie. They both gave Janet hugs before leaving. She had expected that Daniel would continue on his way, too, but he didn't.

"I'm a little curious," he told her as he sat down at the table, "What happened to my counterpart from your reality?"

Her head shot up. "What?"

"Maybe I shouldn't ask, but…I'm assuming he died, because if he didn't, he'd likely be doing everything in his power to help take care of his best friends' kids."

She slowly nodded. "He died in the battle for Earth. Saving Sam and her ship's crew."

"Wow. Was anyone from SG-1 left? Besides you and Martouf?" Janet shook her head. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that."

"I wish Jake and Abbie hadn't gone through it. Sometimes…sometimes I thought it would have been easier if we'd all still been on Earth at the end." Janet regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth; that was something she'd never intended on admitting to anyone.

"As hard as it was, I'm glad you weren't," Daniel quietly said. "I guess we've both lost and re-found each other."

She looked up, at that, a little surprised. "Yeah."

Another person stopped beside their table. "There you are," Vala told Daniel. "I thought you were supposed to be in your office?"

He looked at his watch. "Yeah, sorry. Came to get a snack and we started talking…" He smiled at Janet. "I'll see you later."

She nodded. "Right. Bye." As she watched them go, she sighed. He might look the same and sound the same, but he wasn't her Daniel. And she'd have to get used to that.

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: The J/D/V vote ended up being a tie with several people not having a preference either way. Thank you to everyone who shared their opinion. I realized that I didn't want to have any cat fights in the SGC, so hopefully you guys will be okay with this route. :-)  
**


	7. Secrets and Concerns

Sam wanted to try to bring Jake out of his shell a little that night, so she decided that they could all make dinner together instead of going to a restaurant or ordering something in like they'd been doing for the past few days.

"There's my junior chef," she said when Jake came into the kitchen. Jack was right behind him, holding Abbie. "You think you could help cook?"

He shrugged. "Maybe."

"Do you like spaghetti?" He nodded. "Good. I'm not the best cook, but I thought making dinner would be fun. What do you think?"

"Okay," he agreed.

Jake got to break the noodles and drop them into the pot. Jack had Abbie 'help' him with putting together a salad – she could pull ingredients out of the vegetable bin at the bottom of the fridge. It was nice to have a very normal night with everyone all together.

"Can I stir?" Jake asked as Sam poured the spaghetti sauce into a second pot.

She smiled. "Sure, buddy," she told him as she handed him the spoon. "Be careful, okay?"

"I will," he promised. She pulled a stool over for him to stand on and helped him climb up. "Thanks," he quietly told her as he started stirring. That was one of the longest conversations he'd voluntarily had with her since arriving.

"You're welcome," Sam replied as she went back to the pasta.

Jake stayed mostly quiet through the meal, carefully twirling his pasta with a surprising amount of skill. Abbie mainly played with her noodles, ignoring her fork in favor of using her fingers. She had tomato sauce all over her face and shirt by the time that she'd finished. "Yay, 'ghetti," she said as Sam picked her up.

She laughed. "Okay, that's one vote of confidence. How about you, Jake? Did you like it?"

He nodded. "Can I go read in my room?"

"How about you bring your book out here and we can all read together?"

Jake shook his head. "I want to go to my room."

She gave in. "Okay. We'll be here if you want to come join us, all right?" He didn't answer before he headed down the hall.

* * *

Abbie needed a bath so that she could be de-tomato-sauced. Sam got her to bed, and then went to check on Jake. He had fallen asleep with a book on his chest, still in his clothes. She just watched him from the doorway for a long minute; in sleep he looked so little and innocent. The steel walls that he'd erected around himself fell away. What would it take for those walls to come down when he was awake?

After carefully getting him tucked in, Sam headed back out to the kitchen. Jack was trying to get things cleaned up and she joined in.

"Did you put the leftovers in the fridge already?" she asked him when she realized that the bowl which had once held a serving of pasta was now empty.

Jack shook his head. "I think the little man got hungry again; I got a phone call from work and noticed that the bowl was empty after I was done."

She frowned. "Did he take it back to his room?"

"Must have."

"Well, he's done with it now, because he's asleep. I'll be right back." Sam went back to Jake's room, and looked around for what he'd done with his plate. She finally found it sitting on the floor under his desk. _Why would he leave it there?_ she wondered as she walked to the kitchen. "Looks like he wasn't as hungry as he thought," she told Jack; the plate was still mostly full.

"I guess 'no food in bedrooms' is going to have to be a house rule."

"Yeah."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they shared the task of washing and drying pots, plates, cups, and utensils. "I was thinking…" Sam finally spoke up, "You said before that if Jake and Abbie were from this reality, you would have been my commanding officer when Jake was born. We don't know for sure that that WASN'T true in their reality."

Jack shrugged. He hadn't thought about it, but she was right. "You could ask Janet if you want to know," he suggested.

"Well, yeah, but…it's not just about that. There's A LOT that we don't know about them, Jack. We're creating fake pasts for them, but we barely know anything about their real ones. I mean… even something as simple as the significance of their names."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You can't figure out who Jacob Daniel is named after?"

"My father and Daniel, I know, but…why? Are there stories we would have told Jake as he got older? Maybe in their reality, my father was never bonded with Selmak and he died before Jake was born. Or maybe…maybe my mother was still alive and my father and I were really close."

"Maybe."

"And Abigail Charlotte? Her middle name seems obvious, but…"

Jack just nodded. "Point taken."

"As much as they need to move on, I don't want them to forget, either. I think we do need to talk to Janet, and maybe we can write some stuff down for them, for once they get older. I think we owe them that."

Jack smiled a little. Considering she'd only had a couple days to adjust, she was settling into the role of 'mom' very well and very quickly. "You're going to be really good for them, Sam."

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

Sam sighed. She had seen him interacting with Jake and Abbie over the past few days, and knew that he was starting to build relationships with them, but he didn't seem to have interest in being a parent to them. She had no idea where that left them as far as their personal relationship. It wasn't as if that construct had ever been very well defined, but now everything was so different.

She realized that Jack was watching her, still waiting for an answer that she had no idea how to phrase. She wasn't even sure if she really wanted an answer to her concerns; she couldn't turn her back on Jake and Abbie, but she didn't want to lose Jack, either. "Nevermind," she finally said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. It's not important.

* * *

Around 3AM, the silence in Sam's house was shattered by the sound of a child screaming. Both Jack and Sam hurriedly got out of bed and ran to Jake's room. He was tossing back and forth, caught in the grip of a horrible nightmare.

"Jake? Jake, wake up," Sam told him as she gently shook his shoulder.

He suddenly sat straight up in bed, eyes wild and heart racing. "Abbie?" he called, still not fully aware of where he was and what was happening. "Abbie!"

"She's okay," Jack told him. "She's sleeping in her room. Calm down, pal. You're both safe."

Jake seemed skeptical, still concernedly looking around at his surroundings. However, he started breathing more normally after a moment as he remembered the events of the past few days. "You all right?" Sam asked him. Jake nodded.

"You want to talk about your dream?" Jack wondered. He vigorously shook his head no. "You sure? It might make you feel a little better."

"It was nothing," he said as he laid back down.

"It didn't sound like nothing," Sam tried, but Jake wasn't ready yet. He refused to say anything else and closed his eyes as if he was going back to sleep. As much as they didn't like it, they knew they had to wait for him to be ready. They'd spoken with a psychiatrist at the SGC who had warned against forcing Jake into dealing with things before he was ready. Having patience wouldn't be easy, but it was what they needed to do.

"I hope you have some good dreams, buddy," Sam quietly told him before she tucked his blanket back around him. They turned out the light and left. "I hate this," Sam quietly stated as they stood together in the hall.

Jack nodded. "I know."

* * *

Sam lingered in the hallway for a little bit, listening for any sign that Jake wasn't actually going back to sleep. Once she could hear him softly snoring, she went back to her bedroom. Jack was still awake, waiting for her. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's asleep," she replied as she sat on the bed next to him. "I wish there was more we could do for him."

"Just let him know he's not alone."

"Yeah." They both laid down, and Jack turned out the light, but Sam still had a few things on her mind. "Jack? There's something else I've been thinking about that I'd like your opinion on."

"At three-twenty-three in the morning?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Just warning you about my mental abilities at this hour. What's wrong?"

Sam sighed. "My job."

Jack frowned. "What?"

"We had a conversation once, about whether we thought a family and the Stargate program could go together."

"If I remember correctly, the hypothetical parents in that conversation were you and Pete."

"So the situation's changed – a lot – but the problem hasn't. Is it fair to them for me to drop them off in the morning and head out to some unexplored world light-years away?"

"You were still exploring the world in their reality," Jack pointed out.

"Yeah, and look where that got them," she somewhat-bitterly shot back. "If their mother hadn't decided to be the hero, they'd still be with her." In her mind, the situation that the kids were in – the pain that they were dealing with – was directly caused by the decisions that their parents had made. They'd taken a gamble and lost big. And they weren't the ones paying for it.

Jack sighed. "If their parents hadn't still been in the Stargate program, then Jake and Abbie would probably be dead right along beside them and everyone else on whatever's left of their Earth."

Sam looked away. It was a logical argument, but that didn't mean that she had to like it. She was secretly harboring a fear that Jake's current issues were being caused or exacerbated by HER inadequacies as a guardian. Janet trusted her to be able to take care of the children, but what exactly was that trust based on?

Jack watched as several different emotions flickered across her face, and wondered if he'd put his foot in his mouth. _Who the hell am I to be handing out parenting advice?_ "Look…I'm not going to try to tell you what you should and shouldn't do. If you think it's too dangerous or too difficult to stay with SG-1, then that's your call. But you've worked really hard to get where you are, and I know that you enjoy what you do. I think you can find a balance."

Sam was quiet for a long moment before finally nodding. "Okay. I won't decide anything now. We'll see how it goes."

* * *

TBC...


	8. Trust

During breakfast the next morning, they let Jake and Abbie know that Jack was going back to Washington DC that afternoon. Neither was sure what the children's reactions would be.

"We said before that we live in different places," Sam explained. "We have different jobs than your parents did. I know it's probably a little scary, but we don't want you to be worried. Both Jack and I are still going to be in your lives.

Jake was silent, stonily staring at the table, but Abbie looked confused and concerned. "Dada go 'way?" she asked.

"Yeah, princess," Jack told her. They'd decided not to try to correct her when she called them her parents. It was too complicated for a twenty-one-month-old. They were pretty sure that Jake didn't like it, but he hadn't tried to correct his sister, either.

Jake got up and started to leave, but Sam caught his arm. "Jake, talk to us. Tell us what you're thinking."

"Can I go play in my room?" he asked without looking at her.

She sighed. Were they ever going to get anywhere with him? "Okay. We've got a couple hours before we have to leave." He disappeared down the hall.

Sam and Jack exchanged a look. "That could have been worse, I guess," he commented.

"Not much."

* * *

Jack volunteered to run out to the store and pick up some more food and other necessities for the house. Sam knew that trying to go shopping alone with the kids would be an interesting experience, so he was trying to help her put it off as long as possible. She cleaned up the kitchen while Abbie played with a Fisher Price busy-board toy in a corner of the living room.

Sam turned around to get the leftover pancakes and put them in the fridge and frowned when she realized that the serving plate was empty. Looking around, she saw that Jacob was walking out of the kitchen and back down the hall. "Hey, Jake?" He half-turned around, trying to hide what was in his hands – a napkin filled with food. "What are you doing, buddy?"

"Nothing," he told her, and tried to keep walking, but Sam stopped him. Inside his napkin were three pancakes and two pieces of bacon.

"We need to keep food in the kitchen so we don't get bugs in your room," she told him. "Are you still hungry? I can get you a plate."

Jake shook his head, and was reluctant to give up his bounty. "I need it," he quietly admitted.

Sam frowned. "Need it for what?"

"Later. Just in case."

In that moment, Jake seemed like more than just a child. He needed love and security, but he also needed his pride. Sam wasn't about to try to strip that away. She grabbed one of the Tupperware containers and offered it to him.

"Here. You put everything in here and put it in the fridge so you know exactly where it is later. Nobody else will touch it, okay?" Jake seemed skeptical, but agreed. Sam noticed that he glanced over at his sister before storing the container in the refrigerator. She also remembered the leftover spaghetti from the night before – apparently this was a habit for the little boy. "Did you have to save food before?" she quietly asked him.

"Sometimes… there wasn't much to eat. Janet said it was 'cause there were too many people and not enough supplies. I would find anything I could and keep it for later. Abbie cries if she's hungry."

Her heart broke a little. "You were trying to take care of her?" He nodded. "You're a very good big brother, Jake. Abbie is very lucky to have you… but you don't have to worry about that now, okay? It's my job to take care of you and your sister. It's your job to just be a kid."

He stared at her for a long moment, almost as if he was scared to believe her. "What if something happens?" he softly asked, his voice trembling slightly.

Considering what he had just admitted, Sam knew that he could handle her being straight with him. "I can't promise that nothing's going to happen. I wish that I could. But you are safe right now and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you stay that way…Do you trust me?" Jake slowly nodded.

* * *

When Jack got back, Sam was in the living room with Abbie, watching the toddler play. She quickly filled him in on what had happened with Jake.

"Wow," was all he could say when she was finished.

"I know…he's six years old and he's got more parenting experience than I do. That shouldn't happen, Jack."

"No, it shouldn't."

"He went back to his room after that, but it feels like I got let in a little bit. I don't think Janet knew about that; I hope that means he really is starting to feel safe again."

"Yeah. That's good."

Abbie stood up and handed him one of her wooden blocks. "Red," she told him, pointing to the letter that was painted on the side.

"Yep. Can you find blue?" The toddler thoughtfully stared at her pile, then picked up the right block and gave it to him. "Kid's a genius already."

She smiled. "Where's green, Abbie?" she asked. After a moment of consideration, the little girl found the correct block. "Good girl."

They both watched her play for a few minutes before Jack spoke up. "You know, we haven't really talked about where we go from here."

Sam swallowed hard. "No, we haven't." She had a feeling she knew what was coming next – he didn't want any part of the new life she was working on building. He'd already said that he'd do what she needed for Jake and Abbie as far as money or anything like that, but she was certain that he wasn't going to be taking any kind of parental role with them. And he definitely wouldn't want to continue a relationship with her.

"I was thinking…you're going to have your hands full here for the short term, figuring out how to make things work." She nodded, rendered mute with dread. "But maybe in a couple weeks, I could come out for the weekend?"

That got her attention. "What?"

"If our schedules aren't too crazy," he added.

"Y-yeah. That'd be fine."

Jack smiled. "Great. And any time you want to call…"

"Right."

It was more than Sam had been expecting, but she still felt disappointed. She just couldn't help it. Jack wasn't ending things, but he wasn't really giving her anything definitive, either. There were no ideas for the future, no hopes of where this could end up going. Was there any chance of him changing his mind and wanting to be included? Was this just going to turn out to be a waste of time in the end?

But she couldn't make herself say anything. It was still more than what she'd been expecting. "I guess it's almost time to get going, isn't it?" she asked.

Jack looked at his watch. "Yeah, I guess so."

"I'm going to go get Jake. Can you get Abbie in the car?"

"Sure.

* * *

Jake was reading again, curled up on his bed. "Hey, buddy. We need to head for the airport," Sam told him.

"I don't want to go," he replied without looking up.

"Well, we're all going together. Don't you want to say goodbye to Jack?"

"No."

"Jake, can you put the book down, please?" He sighed, but obeyed. "Thank you. Can you please put your shoes on and come on out to the car."

"I don't want to," he repeated.

"I understand that, but… I need you to play with your sister while we're driving, okay? Keep her occupied. Can you please do that for me?" Jake sighed, but got up and started putting on his sneakers. "Thank you."

* * *

Once they got to Colorado Springs Airport, Sam stopped her car in the departures zone and everyone got out so that they could say goodbye.

"Be a good girl, okay?" Jack told Abbie, whom Sam was holding. "Try not to throw food and no climbing out of your crib in the middle of the night." She just giggled. He then turned to Jake, who was staring at the curb as he stood beside Sam. "Hey, pal. You be good, too, huh? I promise, if you give things here a chance, you'll find that they're not so bad. Different, but still not so bad." Jake didn't look up or say a word, and Jack couldn't help but wonder what the little boy was holding back. Was he scared? Angry? Sad? Happy to finally be getting rid of him?

Once it was obvious that Jake wasn't going to say goodbye, Jack turned to Sam. "Take care of yourself," she told him before giving him a quick kiss.

"You, too," he replied. "Especially now."

She nodded. "I will."

He started walking toward the door, but looked back to give them a wave. Abbie was using Sam's shoulder for a pillow, but she waved back at him. Jake didn't acknowledge him in any way, but had moved to lean against Sam's leg. She had a hand on his shoulder, and he hadn't shrugged her off.

They were becoming a little family, he realized, and he wasn't part of it. As Jack kept walking, he was surprised to find that it bothered him.

_This is the best thing for them,_ he reminded himself. He had already made his bed and now he had to lie in it.

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Thanks for all of the feedback that I've gotten so far! You guys always make my day.**


	9. Finding Normal

Sam got to take the rest of the week off to be with Abigail and Jacob and get things set up for them, but then she needed to be back at work. Jake also needed to start attending school, a notion that he wasn't terribly thrilled with.

"Why can't I just go with you, like Abbie?" he asked as he followed behind Sam as she pushed a cart through the local office supply store. She was planning on having Abbie stay in her office at the SGC on days that she was just working in her lab. She'd found a day care for days when things at the base would be busy or she'd be off-world.

"Because you're older than Abbie," Sam replied. "And older kids are supposed to be in school. What kind of markers do you want?" He grabbed one of the two packages that she was holding and chucked it into the cart.

"But I don't want to go!" he protested. Sam was pretty certain that Jake was actually very concerned about going to school, and not just purposely trying to be difficult. According to Janet, he hadn't been in several months since things had started getting very bad on his Earth. He was only in the first grade, so he'd never had a chance to get used to the routine.

Sam made sure that Abbie couldn't get into trouble with anything within arm's reach of the cart, then turned to Jake and knelt in front of him. "It's not going to be as bad as you think, okay? You like the new clothes we bought, right?"

Jake's eyes were focused on the floor as he traced one of the linoleum tiles with the toe of his right sneaker. "Yeah," he grudgingly admitted.

"And you're going to have new supplies and a new backpack and I've heard that your teacher is very nice."

"They wouldn't tell you if she was mean," Jake pointed out, one eyebrow raised as if he was daring her to argue with him. _He's EXACTLY like Jack… _Sam thought.

"Just give it a chance, okay?"

* * *

Jake was still anxious by the time Monday morning rolled around, however. It took two tries to get him out of bed. "Jake, we gotta get going, buddy," Sam told him as she came into his room for the second time. He'd woken up the first time, but was now lying down again with his pillow over his head.

"I'm not going," his muffled voice told her. Sam picked the pillow up.

"I've got breakfast for you."

"I don't want breakfast." She laughed as his stomach growled at that moment.

"Oh really? Get dressed and come eat." Jake sighed, but got out of bed.

Ten minutes later, though, he still hadn't appeared in the kitchen. "Jake?" Sam called through the house as she put a bowl of cereal in front of Abbie. "Where are you, buddy?"

"My room," was his reply.

She was beginning to regret letting him get ready on his own. "Are you dressed?"

"Maybe." A minute later, he trudged down the hall, carrying his shoes.

"There you are. I've got English muffins and fruit salad. What kind of jelly do you want?"

Jake slouched in a chair. "Grape."

Sam put the jar on the table, along with his plate. "We gotta leave in ten minutes, okay? Work on the fruit first; you can take the muffin in the car if you're not done."

He didn't end up finishing the fruit or the muffin. He mostly just played with the little pieces of peaches and pears, pushing them around on his plate. Sam gave him a couple reminders that they needed to leave, but they didn't seem to make any difference. Finally, she couldn't wait any longer.

"Okay, grab your bag and I'll bring your English muffin out to the car."

"I'm not done with my fruit," he told her.

"I know you're not, buddy, but we've gotta go. I put a cup of applesauce in your lunch."

* * *

During the drive over to the elementary school, Jake appeared to be a prisoner facing the gallows. He finished his muffin, then just stared out the window, arms folded and shoulders hunched. Sam parked the car and got Abbie out of her car seat so that they could walk Jake inside. Jake made no move to get out of the car; he didn't even unbuckle his seatbelt.

"Come on, Jake, we gotta go inside."

"I want to stay with you," he told her.

"I know you do, and I would love it if you could. But there are so many things that you need to learn in order to go from being a smart kid to a smart man. You're going to learn all of those things here in school."

"I don't have to be smart," he argued.

"Oh, nice try, mister! You are already very smart and I'm going to make sure you stay that way. It's not going to be as bad as you think, Jake. And I promise that I will be back this afternoon to pick you up and you can tell me ALL about your day."

That seemed to appease his fears a little and he got out of the car. When they walked in to the main office, his teacher was waiting for them. "You must be Jake," she told the little boy with a smile. "I'm Ms. Kirkpatrick. I'm going to be your teacher."

"Can you say hi?" Sam prodded Jake when he didn't respond. "He's a little concerned about starting school."

"I can understand that," she replied, her smiled widening. "But there's nothing to be scared of. You're going to make some new friends and learn new things and have a great time."

* * *

Jake willingly followed his teacher to his classroom, and Sam headed for work. She couldn't suppress her concern for the little boy, though, and as the morning went on, she started to get just as worried as Jake had been. What if he really DIDN'T like the school? What if his teacher actually WAS mean? She had seemed very nice, but what kind of idiot wouldn't be nice around the parents? Why had she pushed him into this before he felt ready? He deserved to have something finally go easy in his life.

She'd gotten almost nothing accomplished by the time Cam came to her office around lunchtime. "Hey, munchkin," he greeted Abbie as he passed her little play area in the corner. "Welcome back," he then added for Sam.

"Thanks," she half-heartedly replied.

He could easily read her tone and expression. "What's wrong?"

"Jake."

Cam frowned. "He still having issues?"

"I don't know. He was really concerned about school this morning, and I told him it would be fine, but I keep thinking… He might really hate it. I mean, he could get picked on for being the new kid, and he's probably going to be behind everyone else a bit – "

"Sam," Cam interrupted her with a smile. "Stop. Breathe. He's gonna be fine."

"We don't know that."

"No, but even if today sucks, he's still going to be fine. He's been through a hell of a lot more than a bad day of first grade and he's survived that."

"That's the other thing I keep thinking about. I mean…should I be rushing to get him into a normal routine?"

"He's gotta go to school."

"Yeah, but… He's been through so much and he won't talk to anyone about it. So does that mean he doesn't actually feel safe here? He needs that, you know?"

"Yeah, I know, and I also know that trust takes time to earn. You're doing fine, okay? Really, you're doing amazing. I can't imagine trying to take on the two of them alone."

"I'm not really alone."

"You're the one who's in the same time zone with them."

"Cam, please don't start." She'd already heard her teammate's opinions about Jack's role in their lives – or lack thereof – when he'd stopped by her house to visit a couple nights earlier.

"I'm not trying to, I'm just saying. You're the one who's here with them."

"You know it's not that simple."

He held his hands up. "Okay, okay, I won't say anything else about it. But seriously, Sam. You're doing a good thing. They're going to be fine."

"Thank you."

He nodded. "No problem. Don't let all that start bottling up again, okay? Your head might blow off the next time and then where would we be?"

She laughed. "Who knows?"

"Screwed, that's where. You want me to take the little one and go get some food in the mess?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, no problem. I saw Teal'c in the hall. We'll watch her for a little while and let you get some work done."

Sam smiled. "She's not the cause of my lack of productivity."

"Well, either way."

"Thanks."

* * *

TBC...


	10. Adventures in Babysitting

**A/N: Bonus for loyal readers: two chapters in one day :-)**

* * *

A short time later, however, Cam was beginning to think he'd been seriously overconfident in his abilities. They'd gotten a tray with some pasta and some Jell-O for Abbie, but at least 75% of it had so far ended up on the table, on the floor, on them, or pretty much any other location that wasn't the little girl's mouth.

"Come on, one bite?" Cam asked as he offered a little Jell-O cube on his fork. "Just one?" Abbie giggled and waved a hand, which struck the fork and sent its cargo flying across the room to splatter against the wall. "Okay, I give up." He picked up the napkin and waved it as a white flag. "Your turn," he told Teal'c.

The Jaffa regarded her seriously. "Abigail O'Neill. You must eat your food or you will not grow up to be strong." She stared back for a moment, but then opened her mouth to accept something. Teal'c nodded in thanks and gave her a square of Jell-O.

"Unbelievable!" Cam exclaimed when she closed her mouth with the food inside and started chewing. "I can't believe that worked." However, a moment later, Abbie blew a raspberry, spraying them both with Jell-O. "Ha! I knew it wasn't just me!"

"Indeed," Teal'c reluctantly responded.

"Okay. I say we clean up and try again. There is no way I am taking her back to Sam and telling her that neither one of us managed to get her to eat anything."

"Agreed." Cam picked Abbie up and put her on her feet, and then they used paper towels to wipe everything off. Teal'c went to get a new tray, but by the time he got back, Cam realized they had a new problem.

"Where's Abbie?" he asked his teammate. They both looked all around the room; the toddler was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, crap."

* * *

They quickly headed out into the hallway to start searching. "She couldn't have gotten very far on those little legs, right?" Cam asked. Teal'c didn't answer.

As they rounded a corner, they realized that they'd found her, but they weren't the first ones to locate the toddler. Janet raised an eyebrow at them as she stood against the wall, holding Abbie on her hip. "Lose something?" she asked.

"Um… she's stealthy," Cam replied.

"Between the two of you, you honestly couldn't manage to keep an eye on one child?"

He was fully aware that she'd had to keep track of TWO kids in an environment FAR more chaotic than the SGC mess hall. Pleading his case wouldn't get him anywhere, so he skipped straight to the important stuff. "It won't happen again," Cam promised. "Just… can we not mention this to Sam?"

Janet was amused by the idea that the F-302 pilot was scared of his teammate's wrath – as he rightfully should have been. "I don't know," she told him, pretending to think about it. "Did you actually manage to get any food in Abbie, or is it all on you?"

Both men looked down at their clothes; they'd gotten the table and chairs in the mess hall cleaned up, but hadn't thought about themselves. Pasta sauce and Jell-O were splattered on them. "It's not all on us," Cam told her. "There was a good bit on the table and chairs, too…"

"And the walls," Teal'c added.

Janet couldn't help a smile. "Go clean up. I'll feed her and take her back to Sam. And I'll tell her you had a meeting to go to or something."

Cam smiled. "Thanks, Doc."

"Mmm-hmm." She smiled at Abbie as the two guys left. "You like terrorizing boys a little too much," she told the little girl, who giggled.

* * *

Once Abbie was happily fed (and Janet had gotten her own lunch), she took the toddler back to Sam's office. "Hey," the Colonel said when she saw her friend in her doorway. "What happened?"

"Nothing big," Janet replied as she put Abbie back down in her play area. "Cam and Teal'c had something they needed to take care of; I told them I'd bring her back."

Sam looked at her skeptically. "What did they do?" she suspiciously asked.

Janet smiled. "She may have ran off on them, but you didn't hear it from me."

She sighed. "She didn't get far?"

"No, I found her in the hall outside of the mess. She's fine."

"Maybe having her here was a mistake. I just thought getting to spend more time with her might be helpful…"

"I don't see why having her here on slow days is a problem. When Cassie was young, I would bring her in with me sometimes when I had to work weekends."

"Cassie was twelve, not under two. She had a bit more of an appreciation for what could be dangerous around here."

"So we keep an eye on Abbie. I don't think the guys are going to let that happen again. In fact, I'm not sure they're going to be volunteering to babysit again." Sam laughed, but sobered after a minute and went back to their previous topic.

"I've been thinking a lot about how my work is going to affect Jake and Abbie. I mean… I don't have a normal schedule all the time, and as careful as we are, things can happen. My life completely changed the day that you came through the gate; I guess I'm still figuring out all the ways."

Janet smiled. "Would it make you feel any better to know that I've already heard this conversation, twice?" she asked. "You had the same concerns in my reality, both after Jake was born and with Abbie."

It did help a little. "How did I make a decision?" Sam asked.

"Well… you loved what you did. You also loved your kids. After Abbie was born, you decided to leave SG-1, but stay with the Stargate program. Focused more on science."

Sam nodded. "I've been considering that option…or leaving altogether. But then we'd probably end up moving away from Colorado Springs so I could find something else, and I don't want to do that to Jake and Abbie… I just don't know."

"You've got to still be you, Sam. If you lose yourself in the process of figuring out what to do for them, they're not going to be any better off."

"Yeah."

"How'd Jake do this morning?" Janet changed the subject. Sam had a lot to think about and they weren't going to resolve anything on the spot.

"Pretty shaky, but he managed."

"Good. He's a tough little guy."

"Yeah, he really is."

* * *

That evening, when Sam arrived at Jake's after-care program to pick him up, she was steeling herself for the worst. Totally prepared to console a child who'd had a miserable day, she was surprised to see him sitting on the floor, happily building a LEGO creation with two other boys.

"Hi," he called when he saw her. "Can I stay ten more minutes?"

"Uh, we gotta get home and get dinner, buddy."

"Please?"

"You can finish your masterpiece tomorrow. Come on." Jake sighed, but said goodbye to his friends and got up. The after-care teacher retrieved his backpack for him and he waved to her before following Sam out the door.

"We were making a castle," he told her as they walked out to the parking lot. "It had a drawbridge and a dragon and a knight."

"Sounds impressive."

"Mmhmm. Can I have LEGOs at home?"

"I think that's a reasonable request. We'll go to the store this weekend and you can pick out which set you want, okay?" Jake nodded.

Once they were on their way home, Sam decided to bring up the rest of his day. "So it sounds like you like after-care; how was actual school?"

"Okay. We did math and read a story and got to play on the playground for a whole half hour after lunch. They have swings and a slide and monkey bars. And we have pen-pals that live in Japan. Well, I don't have one yet, but Ryan said I can write a letter to his."

Sam smiled. "So you had a good time? You like school?"

Jake shook his head, "No. I love school."

* * *

TBC...


	11. Patience and Perseverance

Over the next six weeks, Sam, Abbie, and Jake began to adjust to life together. Sam decided to take a break from participating in missions with SG-1 and spend her time on projects at the SGC. It was definitely different, but she enjoyed the work. She also enjoyed being able to go home at a normal time every day and help Jake with his homework and read stories with Abbie. Her life had been transformed, and she was enjoying watching the kids' lives change, too.

Week by week, Jake was doing better and better. He still had his moments, but was helpful at home and greatly enjoyed school. The day that he received his first A+ grade on an assignment was a milestone; schoolwork had been a bit of a struggle at first, but with some patience and perseverance that was starting to change.

In the car on the way home, Jake held the paper in his hands as if it was the Holy Grail. Sam smiled as she looked at him in the rearview mirror. "I'm really proud of you, Jake."

"Thank you. When's Jack going to get here?" Jack was coming to visit for the weekend, his fourth trip to Colorado since Jake and Abbie had arrived in this reality. Jake was always happy when he arrived, and withdrawn and irritated when he headed back to Washington. They were hoping that would stop when the little boy eventually realized that even though Jack left, he would be coming back.

"He's not getting in until late tonight, buddy," she replied.

"How late?"

"You're going to be in bed already, but you'll see him in the morning."

Jake considered that. "I want to stay up. I want to show him this."

"I know you do, but you need your sleep. How about we stick it on the fridge when we get home? That way Jack can see it once he gets here." Jake was quiet, and the smile had melted from his face. "Jake?"

"My mom would do that," he quietly admitted. "She'd put my drawings up so my dad could see them. He'd work late some nights."

Sam sighed. She never knew when she'd trip over something from Jake's past. "Sorry, buddy. We can put it somewhere else if you'd like. Maybe the wall in your bedroom?"

He thought about it for a moment, and then shook his head. "No, that's okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Jack wouldn't see it until morning if we put it in my room."

"Okay."

"Sam? Do…do you think that my mom and dad would be happy, too?" His voice was so innocent, so hopeful. Since they were stopped at a red light, she turned around to look him in the eye.

"Yeah, buddy. I'm sure they would be." Jake nodded a bit as he looked back down at his paper. The light turned green and Sam kept driving.

Once they were stopped in the garage, she turned around to face him again. "You know, whenever you want to talk about your parents, I'm listening, okay? I know you still miss them."

His expression turned stormy, and he held her look for a moment before he suddenly opened the car door and went running for the house.

"Jake!" she called after him, but he disappeared inside and slammed the door behind him. Sam sighed. "I guess that was a land mine," she murmured. "Too bad they don't have warnings…"

* * *

It was almost midnight when Jack arrived at Sam's house by taxi. She'd figured that he'd be half asleep since it was 2AM eastern time, but he sensed that something was bothering her and wanted to talk. The story of that evening's events quickly came out.

Jack let out a sigh as she finished; they were sitting together on her bed. "How's he been doing this week?"

"Good. His grades have been up in all of his classes and he was excited to see you. I can't help but wonder…"

"Mmm?"

"Well, like I said, things have been going well. I wonder if talking about his parents made him feel guilty for that."

Jack frowned. "Guilty?"

"I felt that way when my mother died. She was gone and I was still finding things to be happy about. I felt horrible."

"She wouldn't have wanted you to spend your life under a rock because she was gone."

"I know that NOW, but when I was a teenager… And Jake's only 6. Adults barely know how to handle grieving; how is he supposed to have a clue? We don't even know if he really got a chance to deal with what happened to his parents. Considering everything else that was happening at the time, I'd guess the answer is 'no'. And now, not only is he moving on with his life, but he's got two people trying to take his parents' places."

"That's not – "

"I know that's not what we're actually trying to do," she cut him off, "But I'm sure it must feel that way to him sometimes."

Jack was quiet for a moment. "Have you brought this up with Janet?"

"No. Considering how many people she also lost… No, I don't feel comfortable bringing it up with her. Something she said when she first got here was totally right – she isn't the same person. We're learning to be friends again. I don't trust her with everything the way I did with our Janet. Not yet."

Jack slowly nodded. Nothing with this whole situation was as easy as someone might have predicted. "I'll try talking to Jake tomorrow. Maybe it'll help."

"Thanks."

* * *

In the morning, Jake was acting like nothing had happened, so Sam just decided to go with it. After they finished eating breakfast, Jack took him outside to ride his new bike. It was some valuable 'guy time' for the little boy. Sam sat in the living room, folding laundry, and watched through window while they went up and down the street.

"Jakey!" Abbie exclaimed as she pointed out the window.

"Yeah, you see your brother?" Sam asked her. They had a tricycle in the garage for her, but so far Abbie hadn't shown any interest in it. When Jake went riding, she was perfectly content to just sit on the lawn and watch him. "Doesn't he look like he's having fun?"

A few minutes later, Jack came back into the house. "Hey, Sam, where do you keep your wrenches and stuff?" he asked.

She frowned. "Do his handlebars need adjusting again?"

"No, he wants the training wheels off."

Sam looked up in surprise. "He's only had the bike for two weeks."

Jack shrugged. "I guess he likes living on the edge. Don't worry, I'll make sure he's got the hang of it before I let go of him."

She still wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but went out to the garage and got a tool kit. Jake had brought his bike up the driveway and held onto it while Jack took the training wheels off of the sides. Abbie found her customary spot next to the lamppost and sat down to watch.

"Are you sure about this?" Sam asked Jake as he got back on his bike.

"Uh-huh."

"Can you stay on the sidewalk?" she asked Jack. "At least then if he falls, he'll land in the grass."

"I'm not gonna fall," Jake protested.

Jack held onto his handlebars and the back of his seat and walked with him down the driveway, letting him get used to having to balance the bike. They went a few houses down the sidewalk, then came back. Sam could hear Jake saying, "Let go, Jack!" as they approached.

"Okay, one hand," he agreed, letting go of the handlebars but keeping a good grip on the back of Jake's seat.

"No, no hands! Let go." And after a moment, he obeyed. Jake got two good pedals in before he slowed down too much and accidentally let the front wheel turn. He toppled over into the grass.

"Jakey fall!" Abbie cried, pointing to the scene of the accident and looking up at Sam worriedly.

Jack ran over and picked the bike up. "You okay?" he asked Jake. The little boy nodded as he sat up and brushed the grass off of his jeans.

"I wanna try again…but maybe you should hold on a little longer this time."

Jack stifled a laugh. "Youbetcha."

It took a few more attempts and one more fall, but a half-hour later, Jake was riding up and down the sidewalk on his own. "You see me, Jack?" he called at one point as he pedaled past the end of Sam's driveway.

"Yeah, pal, you look great."

Sam smiled at Jack as she stood next to him. "Looks like someone's got a hero," she told him.

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm just a bike-holder."

* * *

TBC...


	12. Appreciation

Once Jake got the hang of riding his bike, they had a hard time getting him to come back inside. Jack had to call him a couple times to get him to stop riding and eat lunch. As Jake walked through the garage on his way into the house, he picked up his training wheels and dumped them in the trash can.

After they finished eating, Jake started getting quiet again, and Sam wondered if some new memory was haunting him. Once the kitchen had been cleaned up, she found him in the garage, sitting on the floor and staring at his bike, which was leaning against the wall.

"Hey, buddy," she said as she sat next to him.

"Hi."

"You okay?" Jake shrugged. "Just thinking about stuff?"

"Yeah." Sam handed him the object that she was holding – a bound book. "Another book?" he asked. A frown appeared on his face when he opened the cover and realized that there was no writing. Flipping through the pages revealed that the whole thing was blank. "What's this for?"

"That is something to help you remember your parents and your friends and your life from before you came here. When you're thinking about something, you can write it down or draw a picture and make sure it's kept safe. No one is expecting you to forget about them, Jake. Just the opposite, really. And if you want help with writing, all you have to do is ask."

He stared at the book without answering, tracing a finger around the edge. Sam was somewhat encouraged by the fact that he hadn't gone running back into the house yet.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"Do I have to show it to anybody?" Jake whispered.

"No, not if you don't want to… but if you do feel like sharing, I'd listen." He didn't answer. "How about I give you a pencil and go back inside?" she suggested.

"Okay."

"Okay." She handed him the writing utensil and headed back into the house. Before she closed the door, she looked over to Jake; he'd started carefully writing on the first page.

"How's he doing?" Jack asked as Sam joined him and Abbie in the living room.

"Better, hopefully."

* * *

On Sunday morning, Sam woke up to see that Jack was sitting on the bed, watching her. "What?" she asked with a self-conscious smile. "Is my bed-head that bad?"

Jack shook his head, "You look beautiful." He reached for a box on her nightstand. "Here."

Sam frowned in confusion as she sat up and took the box. "What is this?" It wasn't her birthday yet and he hadn't ever gotten random gifts for her before.

"Open it," Jack insisted, without giving any kind of explanation. She obliged, and discovered a small, heart-shaped photo frame inside. It already held a picture of Jake and Abbie together. "Happy Mother's Day."

Sam smiled. "You didn't have to do this."

"Yes, I did. I know this hasn't been easy, but you've been doing a great job. I wanted to make sure you knew it didn't go unnoticed."

"Jack…"

"I decided not to bring Jake and Abbie in on this," he quietly revealed. "And not because I don't think they appreciate you, but I just wasn't sure how Jake would take it. And especially after this week…"

She shook her head. "No, I understand, and I agree. Thank you so much for this. It's a great picture of them."

"Mmm. Last time I was here, I got them to sit still long enough for one decent photo while you were out shopping or something. Even got Jake to smile."

She laughed, but her grin faded after a moment. "I'm still worried about them."

"I know."

"How am I supposed to know if I'm doing everything they need?"

"You don't. Kids are mostly gray areas, but you're doing great. Really."

Sam forced a smile. "I'm sorry. This was so nice and I don't want to ruin it."

"Don't worry about it."

"Thank you, again."

Jack leaned over and kissed her. "Happy Mother's Day."

* * *

Neither of them was aware that a little pair of eyes was watching from the hallway through the not-quite-closed bedroom door. Jake had woken up and come to ask about breakfast, but ended up overhearing the end of their conversation.

He quietly padded back down the hall to his bedroom and shut the door behind him. Buried under socks in the top drawer of his dresser was one of the few possessions that he'd brought from his reality – a set of dogtags that had belonged to his mother. Jake pulled them out and sat down on his bed. Most days, he would leave them safely hidden away, but sometimes, if he was feeling homesick, he would take them out and hold them.

Five lines carved into two scraps of metal held her identity. The concept had originally made him angry. There was so much more that defined her besides her name, blood type, and religion. She'd been his mom. She read him books, had taught him to tie his shoes, and would put Spiderman band-aids on his cuts and scrapes. When his dad went away for work, she'd let him sleep in the big bed and they'd have pillow fights. He'd loved to see her smile.

Jake turned his gaze upwards, "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy," he whispered. He'd forgotten all about the holiday in the chaos of the last several weeks. The previous year, his father had let him pick out flowers to surprise his mother with. He'd gotten yellow and red roses; yellow matched her hair, so they were just for her, and red was always the color used for things that mean you love someone. The day had been just perfect, and none of them had ever imagined it would be the last time they would celebrate the holiday together.

Jake lifted up the corner of his mattress and took out the book that Sam had given him. He had carefully filled the first page the previous day with a list of all the people that he didn't ever want to forget. His mother was the first on that list. He flipped to the next page and laid her dogtags on the paper before closing the cover to keep them safe inside. He didn't feel as sad as he normally did after looking at his treasure.

Jack had been right, all those weeks ago. Things here were different, but they were still good. And maybe… maybe that was okay.

* * *

Sam started to get worried when she didn't hear any noise from Jake and Abbie's bedrooms by 9AM. On weekend mornings, she could count on both children being awake early and demanding something to eat for breakfast. She became more concerned when she discovered that both of their beds were empty.

"Did you get Abbie out of her crib?" she asked Jack as he joined her in the hallway.

"No." Sam sighed. She knew that Jake was capable of lowering the railing and getting his sister out, but she'd asked him not to since she was concerned that the little boy would end up falling or dropping her.

"Jake, Abbie, where are you?" Sam called as she and Jack headed out to the living room. There was no answer. Just before she started to panic, Jack noticed something out the window.

"They're outside," he told her.

"They're what?" Sure enough, both kids were in the backyard, still in their pajamas. She opened the back door. "What are you doing out here?"

Jake had been bent over, doing something with the grass, but he abruptly stood up and put both hands behind his back. "Go back inside," he told her.

"What?"

"You gotta go back inside. We're not done yet."

"Done with what? And you guys shouldn't be doing anything out here in your PJs."

"We had to," he replied.

"Why? What's going on?"

Jake knew that they were busted. He sighed and finally stopped hiding what he was holding – a small bouquet of dandelions and clovers. "Happy Mother's Day, Sam," he said as he offered them to her.

She failed at her attempt to blink back tears. "Thank you, buddy."

"These were all that we could find for flowers," he said somewhat sheepishly as he handed her the weeds.

Sam smiled. "They're absolutely perfect."

* * *

TBC...


	13. Siblings

One night that week, Sam was cleaning up the living room when her phone rang. The number on the caller ID made her pulse quicken slightly. "Hey, Mark," she greeted her brother.

"Hey, sis. How are you?"

"Good, you?"

"Real well. Listen, I have a business trip coming up in a few weeks and I was thinking that maybe I could arrange a layover in Colorado for a night, give us a chance to catch up. I was trying to remember the last time we actually saw each other, and I had to pull out a calendar to do it."

Sam smiled slightly. "Yeah, it's been a while."

"Phone calls have even gotten scarce in the last few months," he pointedly said. "What new project have they got you on that's keeping you so busy?"

She sighed. "Actually, it's not work that's been taking up most of my time."

There was a pause. "Are you seeing somebody?" he asked.

Sam hadn't ever told him about Jack, and decided this wasn't the time to do so. "That's not what I meant. I…I adopted two kids, Mark."

There was another silence, then the sound of laughter. "Okay, that was good one," he told her. "What's really going on?"

"I'm serious."

"What do you mean you're serious? Where did you get two kids?"

"It's a long story – "

"I've got time. How long ago was this?"

"Almost two months."

"Two months? In all that time, you never thought, 'Maybe I should pick up the phone and call my brother'?"

Sam sighed. "I meant to, I just… It's been pretty crazy trying to help them adjust and I was trying to figure out what to say." _And get up the courage to do so,_ she thought to herself.

"I can't believe this…You're taking care of two kids, by yourself?"

"Not exactly," she replied, and instantly regretted it. Trying to explain Jack's role in this whole thing wasn't going to calm her brother down.

"What do you mean 'not exactly'?"

"I'm getting help and support from my friends here."

"Well, I guess that's something to be thankful for…" He sighed. "You really think that you can handle this alone?"

"It's a little late for that question, Mark."

"Yeah, I guess it is…I don't get it, Sam. Why would you keep this a secret?"

"It's not personal. I haven't been going around telling everyone I meet and then purposely left you out."

"I'd like to think I'm more than just 'some person'."

She sighed. "Of course you are. I've been really focused on making a life with the kids, and just… let the outside world stay outside."

"Sam?" a voice asked, and she turned to see Jake in his pajamas. "Will you tuck me in?"

"Yeah, Jake. Go get in bed and I'll be there in a minute." The little boy nodded and headed for his bedroom.

"Was that one of them?" Mark asked, having heard their voices through the phone.

Sam was starting to get a headache. "Yeah."

"You called him Jake?"

She took a deep breath. "Yeah. His name is Jacob." And there was so much more that needed to be said, but she was far too tired to get into it and Jake was waiting for her. "Look, I have to go. We'll talk again later, okay?"

"Yeah. Bye."

* * *

Sam didn't get much sleep that night, thinking about her conversation with Mark. Jake noticed that she was distracted in the morning and tried to cheer her up on the way to school. Once he'd been dropped off and Abbie was at day care, Sam stopped by the Air Force Academy Hospital before going over to the SGC.

"Do you have a few minutes to talk?" she asked Janet as she came into her office.

She nodded. "My next appointment isn't until 9:30. What's wrong?"

Sam closed the door behind her. "My brother called last night, wanting to catch up. I don't think I'd talked to him since Christmas."

Janet knew what that meant. "So, you hadn't told him…"

"No."

"Ah. How'd he take the news?"

"Not well. I don't know what our relationship was like in your reality, but here… We were distant for a long time after my mother died. We started talking again about seven years ago, and we definitely got closer, even if it wasn't like when we were young. We send holiday cards and call every now and then. He sends pictures of his kids sometimes; I think they'll both be in high school in the fall."

Janet nodded. "Mark came back into your life after Jake was born. He regretted not seeing your father before he died. Tried to make up for that."

"I can understand that he's upset to be hearing about all of this two months later. I didn't mean to hurt him, I really didn't, I just… I knew the first words out of his mouth would be questions about whether I could actually do this."

"Were they?"

"Pretty much. I know I don't have the perfect nuclear family, but… who hits perfection anyway?"

"I'm not even sure it exists."

"Exactly!"

Janet smiled. "You know that he's just worried about you, right?"

"I didn't ask him to be worried about me."

"No, but I think it comes with the territory of being an older brother."

* * *

Late that night, after Jake and Abbie were in bed, Sam sat on the couch and pulled out her phone to call her brother. "Hi, Sam," he answered.

"Hi. I just… I really am sorry I didn't tell you sooner, Mark. And I know you probably think I've lost my mind, but… I am doing this, and I hope that you can eventually be okay with it."

He sighed. "I don't think you've lost your mind – not completely, anyway – and I'm sorry for how I reacted, I was just… really surprised."

"I know."

"So, you have two kids now."

"Yep."

"Jacob and…"

"Jacob and Abigail Carter. Or just Jake and Abbie."

"Okay. Jake and Abbie. How old are they?"

"Jake's six and Abbie's about to turn two."

"And they're siblings? I mean, biological siblings; obviously they'd be siblings now."

"Yeah, they are."

"How did all of this happen?"

She wished so much that she could share the real story; that he was actually biologically related to these two kids and that Jake really was named after their late father instead of it just being a strange coincidence. But she couldn't, not now. And maybe that was part of the reason that she hadn't told Mark earlier – she didn't want to have to feed him the elaborate lie that they'd concocted.

"Wow," he said when she was finished. "I guess you saved them from a life in the system – or from being separated. I know that siblings are hard to get placed together."

_If only he knew what kind of hell they were really saved from,_ she thought. _He'd be just as amazed by them as I am._ "I don't really think about it that way. It's not just what I'm doing for them; it's what they're doing for me, too. My life is totally different now."

He laughed. "Yeah, I felt the same way when David was born… You're really okay doing this by yourself? Not that I don't have faith in you, but… I know how hard raising two kids can be, and I've got Emma to share the load with. I don't want you to get burnt out."

She was tempted to tell him about Jack, but decided there had been enough surprises for one week. And besides that, she really didn't want to start another fight with him about why she was in Colorado and Jack was in Washington DC. "I'll be okay. Like I said, I've got my friends here."

"And you've got me, okay? I might be a time zone away, but any time you need advice or someone to vent to or anything, just call."

"Thank you."

"And maybe over the summer you guys could come out to San Diego or I could bring my family to Colorado so everyone can meet each other. I'm sure David and Lisa are gonna love having little cousins to play with."

Sam smiled. "That sounds good."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: For anyone wondering where Sam's brother was... there you go! I made up his wife's name; if someone knows what it actually is, I'll correct it. Thanks for the feedback I've been getting!  
**


	14. Surprises

One evening about a week and a half later, Sam was trying to get dinner together for Abbie and Jake when her cell phone started ringing. "Hey, Daniel," she answered it after checking the caller ID.

"Hey. Is Jake around?"

She frowned. "Should I ask why you're calling him?"

"Nope." She rolled her eyes, but handed the phone to the little boy.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jake, it's Daniel. I assume Sam's listening to every word you say now, isn't she?"

He glanced up at her. "Uh-huh."

"All right, then just use short answers – yes or no only. I need your help with something; are you up for it?"

"Okay."

Sam kept listening, but didn't get much of anything from the fact that Jake was saying nothing but, "Uh-huh," "Nope," and "Okay." He finally ended the call and handed the phone back to her.

"Anything you want to share?" she asked.

Jake shook his head. "Nope."

* * *

She wasn't able to get a single detail out of him for the next two days. On Saturday morning, just as she was setting out plates with brunch, the phone rang. _What is it with people always calling during meals?_ she wondered as she reached for the device.

"Hello?"

"Colonel Carter?" she was pretty sure she recognized the voice as belonging to one of the lab technicians at the SGC.

"Yeah, Airman, what is it?"

"I'm sorry to bother you on the weekend, Ma'am, but there's been an… 'incident' in the labs and we need you here ASAP."

She frowned. "Dr. Lee should be on-call this weekend."

"He's not answering his phone, Ma'am."

"There's a list of people for you to call, Airman."

"We have, Ma'am. No one else is available."

"I'm not either." There was a noise in the background that sounded suspiciously like a small explosion. "What was that?"

"Um… like I said, Ma'am. We've had an incident here."

Sam sighed. "I'll be there in 20 minutes."

"Thank you, Ma'am." The Airman hung up and turned around to face the other two people in the lab. "What did you just do?"

Cam and Vala looked at him sheepishly. "That was a slightly larger bang than I was going for," the pilot admitted. "What, you never put a bit of sodium in water in your college chemistry class?"

Vala looked down at the shattered beaker and spilled water on the slightly scorched bench in front of them. "I think that was a bit more than 'a bit'," she pointed out.

"Hey, at least it sounded convincing on the phone right? I bet she'll be here in 15 minutes, tops."

* * *

True to his prediction, Sam's Volvo was in the parking lot 15 minutes later. "I'm still hungry," Jake complained as they rode the elevator down into Cheyenne Mountain.

"I know you are, buddy," Sam told him as she shifted Abbie to her other hip. "I'll take you to the mess hall once I figure out what's going on around here."

Jake shook his head. "No, I want something to eat now."

"Jake – "

"Please! I'm hungry."

"You would think that I'm starving you. Okay, you know how to get from the mess to my lab, right?" He shook his head. "You knew the last time we were here…"

"I forget. Come with me, please?"

Sam looked at her watch. If fifteen minutes without her help wasn't long enough to create a disaster, then sixteen probably wouldn't be either. "Okay, fine. But we have to hurry."

As soon as they got off the elevator, they headed for the mess hall. Sam decided it was a good sign that there weren't any alarms blaring or personnel running around in a panic.

As soon as Jake pushed the doors open, Sam froze. The mess hall was filled with people, and a banner on the back wall read 'Happy Birthday, Sam!'

"Surprise!" her teammates called as she came in the room. Sam was speechless for a minute.

"Oh, my God," she finally said. "You guys set this all up?"

"With a little help," Daniel said as he gave Jake a high-five.

* * *

There was cake and drinks and other goodies, and several people had brought presents. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon together. Jake and Abbie were appropriately sugar-high by the time that Sam and Janet got them loaded into the former's car.

"Happy Birthday," Janet told her friend as she gave her a hug.

"Thank you. This was… great, really. Tell everyone that I really did appreciate it."

"I will."

"You want to come over to the house for dinner tonight?"

"You just want help wrangling those two," Janet accused with a laugh, looking through the car window at Jake and Abbie. They were playing with a small foam ball that Jake had found in the backseat.

"Am I that obvious?" Sam asked.

"Yep. Besides, I have plans for tonight."

"With Cassie?"

She smiled. "No… with one of the other doctors from the Air Force Academy Hospital."

Sam raised an eyebrow; she'd had no idea that Janet had started seeing someone. She was glad her friend was moving on, though. "Oh, really?"

"It's nothing all that big," she tried to convince her. "Just…two friends sharing a meal."

"Where?"

Janet looked away, knowing that she was busted. "Blue Star." An upscale restaurant in Colorado Springs with an incredible wine list.

Sam laughed. "Okay, I want to hear all the details on Monday."

"Will do. Have a good night with the kids."

* * *

Abbie loudly sang along with the radio the whole way home, which greatly amused the other occupants of the car. "Oh, I hope you guys are gonna crash pretty soon," Sam told them with a laugh.

"Wasn't it fun, Sam?" Jake asked.

"It definitely was. Thank you for helping Daniel with his plans."

"It would have been better if Jack was here."

Sam sighed. Jack was supposed to have been visiting that weekend, but a conference had come up that he absolutely HAD to be at. "Yeah, it would have been, but I'm grateful for what I did have. And he'll probably call tonight."

Both kids were still bouncing off the walls by the time they got to the house; they had a jumping contest to get inside instead of walking. Sam shook her head with a smile as she watched, hoping that their antics wouldn't result in her having to break out the first-aid kit. As they all came into the living room, they stopped short.

"Dada!" Abbie squealed.

"Jack, you're here!" Jake cried at the same time, and they both went running for hugs.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked as she joined them.

"I had a spare six hours and I couldn't think of a better place to spend them," he told her. "Happy Birthday."

* * *

They shared the work for baths and bedtime that night, knowing that Jack would have to leave soon after. By the time Jake was finally out, Sam and Jack had an hour left to talk before he needed to head to the airport. She pulled a couple beers out of the fridge and they curled up together on the couch.

"There's something I've wanted to talk to you about," she told him.

"What's up?"

"No one's said it officially yet, but I'm pretty sure they're going to need me to go to the Midway Station and help with some of the problems they've been having there."

Jack sat up. "Really?"

"Yeah. I think General Landry doesn't want to bring it up because of Jake and Abbie, but…We really need to get this sorted out and they're running out of options."

"How long would you be gone?"

"I don't know. A couple weeks maybe."

"What about Jake and Abbie?" Since she'd stopped going on missions with SG-1 about two months earlier, Sam hadn't ever been away from the kids overnight – this was going to be a big deal.

"Well, school's almost out for the summer," she pointed out. "I was thinking that maybe they'd like to see DC?"

Jack froze. "You mean…you want me to take them?"

"Yeah. I thought it would be a chance for them to get out of Colorado, see somewhere new. And they'd get to spend more time with you."

He shook his head. "I don't know about this, Sam."

She frowned a little, surprised by his reaction. "Why not? I mean, we were just talking a few days ago about me bringing them out to see you over the summer."

"It's not the same thing."

"I know that, but…" Sam sighed, frustrated. "I don't get it, Jack. Jake and Abbie love you. They love spending time with you. And it seems like the feeling's mutual, unless I'm totally off-base." She'd been watching him get closer to the kids every time he came to visit. She could hear how his voice changed when Jake or Abbie got on the phone at night. Yes, she understood that he had some valid concerns, but they were never going to have a chance to get past them if he didn't even try.

"That's got nothing to do with it," Jack mumbled, eyes focused on the floor.

"It should," she shot back. "I think they need this trip – and I think you do, too."

Jack sighed. She was asking for something he wasn't sure he could give: trust in himself. It would be so much easier to suggest that she ask Janet instead, but he couldn't do it. Sam was right; as long as he was very, very careful, this could be something really good for him and the kids. They were stealing his heart and he really did want to spend more time with them. "Okay."

Sam blinked. "Okay? You'll do it?"

"Yeah. They can come to DC."

She smiled. "Great."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: I know Sam's birthday is actually in December, but I decided to go with Orlin's delusion that it's in May for my own purposes. :-) As always, thanks for the feedback!  
**


	15. Washington DC

Two weeks later, Sam was leaving for the Midway station with Dr. Lee. Jack, Jake, and Abbie came to the SGC to see her off. Neither of the kids was very happy about it. Jake's eyes had gotten as big as saucers when Sam explained to him what the Station was – basically a small module floating all by itself in the vast space between galaxies. She'd decided not to get him any more concerned by mentioning that right now it was a MALFUNCTIONING module floating alone in intergalactic space. Abbie, of course, had no idea what any of that meant, but she did understand that Sam was going away and fiercely disliked the idea.

"No! No!" the toddler protested as Sam tried to hand her over to Jack. They were all standing in the Gateroom to say goodbye, but it appeared as though that wasn't going to be easy.

"Sweetie, it's okay," Sam tried to tell her. "I'll be back before you know it."

Abbie had the lapels of Sam's BDUs fisted in her little hands. "No!" Their little struggle got even more complicated when Jake attached himself to her left leg.

"Guys, I know you're worried, but it's going to be fine. I am going to do absolutely everything in my power to be back here in just a couple weeks. I'm sure I'll have tons of stories for you, and you're going to have all kinds of adventures to tell me about from DC."

"Yeah," Jack chimed in. "We're going to have a great time."

"Can't you come, too?" Jake asked Sam.

"Not this time, buddy… Okay, how about this. If you really, really can't stand it in DC, then I'll come home."

"Promise?" the little boy asked.

"I do, but you've gotta give it an honest chance. I know that if you do, you're going to have a ton of fun and you probably won't even miss me."

Abbie still had tears dripping down her face, but after a final hug and kiss, she let go of Sam's shirt and allowed Jack to hold her. Jake also let go after he got a hug. "Be careful," he warned her.

"I definitely will. I know I've got a few very important people waiting on me."

"Am I on that list?" Jack quietly asked as she straightened and turned to him.

Sam smiled. "Of course." He gave her a hug and they all watched as she grabbed her bag and headed up the ramp towards the waiting Stargate. After she and Dr. Lee disappeared through the event horizon, the gate shut down.

Still sniffling, Abbie laid her head against Jack's shoulder. Jake looked up at him a bit apprehensively. "So…what now?" the little boy asked.

"Well…now we go get your stuff and head for the airport."

* * *

Jack quickly realized that his short trips to Colorado weren't the same thing as being with Abbie and Jake full-time. There were lots of little things that he didn't know about them and their routine, and he was out of practice in taking care of children on his own.

Jake had packed his handheld video game system in his carry-on bag, but somehow all of the games had gotten stashed in his checked bag. He was therefore completely bored very soon after takeoff, and they had a four-hour flight to get through. Keeping him from running around wild on the plane was a challenge.

"Can I please walk to the back of the plane?" he asked for probably the fifteenth time.

Jack looked at his watch. "We've got about thirty minutes until we land, pal. Then you can run around all you want."

Jake gave an overly dramatic sigh. "Thirty minutes is FOREVER."

"Well, we can pass the time. Keep telling me more about your school."

"I've told you everything already."

"Well, what about next year? Do you get a new teacher?"

"Yeah. Ms. Brown."

"Have you met her?"

"Yeah. I guess she's nice. I liked my old class and Ms. Kirkpatrick, though."

"Unfortunately you can't have things stay the same all the time."

Jake sighed again. "That's what Sam said, too."

The pilot soon made an announcement that they were beginning to descend into National Airport. The view out the window was finally enough to hold Jake's attention for a little while. Jack was just about to settle back to watch for himself when Abbie started crying. She had her hands over her ears, and Jack instantly knew what was wrong.

"Hey, Jake, where's that bottle of water that you had earlier?"

"I don't know."

"Well, can you find it?" Abbie was getting louder by the moment. Jake started searching around the sides of his seat and finally pulled up the water bottle. It was slightly deformed due to the increased air pressure in the cabin caused by their descent. The idea that the same thing was happening to the toddler's ears made Jack cringe a little.

"Thanks," he told Jake as he transferred what was left of the water into Abbie's sippy cup. After a couple swallows, she was doing better. "Do me a favor," he told Jake. "On the way back to Colorado, remind me to get that out BEFORE we start descending."

The little boy shrugged. "Okay."

* * *

Jack had an apartment in the city, which was considerably smaller than Sam's house. Jake was not thrilled when he realized there was only one extra bedroom. "We gotta share a room?" he asked.

"Yeah. Sorry, pal."

"But she tries to eat my LEGOs," he accused his sister, giving her a Look.

"Well, don't leave them out on the floor and she'll be less likely to get her hands on them." Jake couldn't argue with that. "How's pizza sound for dinner?"

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Pepperoni?"

"Whatever you want."

That decision was enough to satisfy Jake, but when the food arrived, Abbie didn't seem to have any interest. She refused to let a fork get anywhere near her mouth, and was just generally cranky. "I've seen her eat pizza before at Sam's," Jack commented.

Jake nodded. "She loves it," he agreed around a mouthful.

"What's going on with you tonight, princess?"

"Mama," she whimpered.

"Sam's not here. But she's gonna be sad if she hears you didn't eat your dinner."

Abbie shook her head. "Mama."

That was pretty much all she said for the next hour. Jack finally sat down at his computer and started searching through his pictures until he found one of Sam. He'd taken it during one of her visits to DC the previous year; she was sitting under a cherry blossom tree on the Mall. "How's that?" he asked Abbie as he showed it to her. She cracked a little smile.

"Mama!"

"When was that?" Jake asked as he joined them.

"About a year ago. You ever hear of the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC?" Jake shook his head. "Maybe next year you can come. Last year, Sam wanted to see it, so she came here for a weekend."

"She looks pretty," Jake told him.

"Yeah, she does." Jack sent the picture to his printer, then grabbed the paper and all three of them sat down on the couch together. "You guys are a lot like her, you know."

"Really?"

"You betcha. Abbie looks like her."

"Yeah, but I look like you."

"Mmm, hair and eyes, but you've got her smile. And you've got this expression…" Jake looked at him skeptically. "Yeah, that one. Sam does the exact same thing." Jake laughed, proud of himself. "Yeah, you guys are so much like her." Silence fell for a long moment as they all sat together, thinking.

"Jack?" Jake finally spoke up. "How come you live here?"

"This is where my job is."

"But don't you want to be with Sam?"

He nodded. "I do."

Jake was quiet for a long moment. "Do you want to be with us?" he hesitantly asked.

"Yeah, buddy. I know this is hard to understand. I… I want to make sure that you guys are safe and taken care of the best that you can be. And I'm not sure if I can do that."

"Why not?"

"Well… because a long time ago I-I made a very bad mistake. And I don't want to ever do anything like that again."

"Oh… Jack?"

"Mmm?"

"I don't care if you make mistakes."

Absolution from a six-year-old. As Jack looked down at Jake, he couldn't help but wonder about the boy's father. Had Charlie ever existed in their reality? If so, his father had obviously managed to forgive himself somehow. And history hadn't repeated itself; as far as he knew, the alternate Jack O'Neill hadn't done anything else incredibly stupid.

"Thank you, pal," he quietly told the little boy. "I know it's confusing for you, but… don't ever be confused about the fact that I love you and your sister."

Jake looked up at him, surprised. "Really?" he asked. "Even if… even though we're not supposed to be here?"

Jack wrapped an arm around him. "I wouldn't want you anywhere else."

* * *

TBC...


	16. Turning Point

**A/N: I really wanted to thank everyone who sent reviews for the past couple of chapters. I've been having a rough few days and you guys have definitely made it easier, so thank you very much.  
**

* * *

They spent the next few days doing some sight-seeing around Washington DC. Jack had taken their whole first week off of work, and then had found an outdoors-y summer camp for Jake for the second week, while Abbie would go to day care. Their itinerary for the first week included monuments, museums, the zoo, and the waterfront.

After a long day at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Jake and Abbie were tired out and got to bed pretty easily. Jack was also looking forward to a good night's sleep, but it was interrupted by the sound of screams around 2 AM. He quickly headed for the kids' room and saw that Jake was in the throes of another nightmare. Sam had warned him that he still had bad dreams frequently, though never was willing to share any details.

"Jake, pal, wake up," he tried to tell him. "C'mon, buddy, it's just a dream."

Jake's eyes opened, and he stared at Jack for a moment before starting to pound little fists against his chest. "It's all your fault!" he accused. "Everything's your fault! You weren't supposed to leave us! Mommy would still be alive if you hadn't left us!" His last four words were each punctuated by blows.

Jack was completely taken aback by that outburst. They'd all known for months that the little boy had a lot of demons in his head, but to actually finally hear about them was a total surprise. "I'm sorry, Jake," was all he could think to tell him as he tried to contain his swinging arms.

The strength from his anger quickly faded, and Jake started to cry. "I'm sorry," he got out between sobs. "I'm sorry I couldn't take care of her. I'm sorry…"

Jack looked across the room to see that Abigail was standing up in her crib, silently watching them with big, worried eyes. "Come on," he quietly told Jake as he picked him up. "Go back to sleep, princess," he added for Abbie as they left the room. Jack shut the door so that she wouldn't be disturbed, and then sat with Jake on the couch. "Talk to me, pal. What were you dreaming about?"

"My mom," he quietly admitted. "She was really hurt. She didn't want me to see how much, but…I could tell. She told me she loved me and then…she went to sleep and she never woke up. And I broke my promise."

"Your promise to who, pal?"

"My dad…When we left Earth, he told me to take care of Mommy and Abbie, but I didn't."

Jack sighed. That was too big of a burden for a six-year-old. "Oh, Jake… You didn't do anything wrong, pal, and you didn't break a promise. There was nothing you could have done, nothing anyone could have done. I'm sure your dad never meant for you to have to carry that around." It was such a simple statement – a quick way to try and instill some bravery and responsibility in a little boy – but for a fiercely protective and loyal child like Jake, it was such a bad idea. Jack hated the fact that he'd been silently keeping that locked up inside him for so many months.

"Why didn't he come with us?" Jake asked after a long moment of silence. "He always said that we were the most important things, but he left us!"

"I don't know. He probably didn't think that what happened would happen. He probably thought he still had time. I know he never would have left you on purpose."

Jake was quiet again. "Jack?" he finally asked. "I don't like it when you leave. I know you live here, but…"

He sighed and held the little boy closer. A lot of things were making more sense now, like Jake's moods when Jack would leave Colorado. Considering what he'd been through, Jack couldn't blame him for being angry that another person was so easily leaving him behind. He was lucky that Jake hadn't completely shut down on him after his first departure.

"I know you don't like it, pal," he quietly said. "I know…I'm gonna fix things."

* * *

Jack had a lot to think about during the rest of their trip. Everything that he and Sam said and did could have a much larger impact on the kids than he'd ever realized. Big mistakes were easy to see, but little things could be incredibly devastating, too. What kind of damage had they unintentionally already done in the past few months?

Or, more accurately, what kind of damage had HE done? He'd sworn to himself that he wouldn't hurt the kids, but it seemed like that vow had been broken. Unlike in his past, however, Jack had the opportunity to try to make things right. And he'd be damned if he wasn't going to make use of it.

It took an extra week, due to a few unforeseen adventures with Atlantis, but Sam finally returned to Earth. When she stepped through the Gate into the SGC, she smiled to see Abbie and Jake standing at the bottom of the ramp, holding a handmade welcome home banner. Jack was standing off to the side behind them.

"Aw, you guys, this is great!" she told the kids as they both hugged her. "Thank you."

"Are you happy you're home?" Jake asked.

"Very. Especially since I get to see you three."

Jack patiently waited for his turn to give her a hug. "Whatever happened to this just being a nice, quiet mission to get the Midway Station operational?" he asked her. Besides working on Midway, she'd also been part of the search for Atlantis, which had just barely survived a major attack and was now located on a new planet.

Sam laughed. "Since when does anything ever go according to plan?"

* * *

They all went out to dinner to celebrate and Sam and Jack shared the work for baths and bedtime once they returned to her house. "I'm glad you're back," Jake told Sam as she tucked him in.

"Thanks, buddy. Me, too. Sleep well." He snuggled under his blankets as she turned off the light and left the room.

Jack was waiting in the living room and offered her a beer. "Don't expect me to stay conscious for too much longer," she warned him as she took the bottle and sat down with him. The last few days had been extremely busy as Atlantis settled in on its new homeworld and they tried to repair the city.

"Well, maybe it won't be tonight, then, but we need to talk."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, we do. And it probably shouldn't wait. I can stay up a little longer."

"You want to go first?"

"Okay…the IOA's offered me command of Atlantis."

That was very close to the last thing that Jack had expected her to say. "Wow."

"Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking."

The logistics of that started running through his head at light speed. It was an incredible step forward for her career, and an honor that she definitely deserved. A year earlier, he would have been disappointed that they'd be separated by an even greater distance, but he would have told her to go. Now… there was no way she'd be able to take Abbie and Jake along, especially after the battles that Atlantis had just been through. So that meant… leaving the kids with him? They'd survived the past few weeks, but he knew that they really needed her. They needed both of them. Staying apart just wasn't going to work anymore.

"Jack?" he heard her ask and realized he'd spaced out. "You okay?"

He shook his head. "No." And then two words tumbled out of his mouth before he'd even realized it: "Marry me."

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "What?"

That wasn't at all how he'd intended on starting this conversation, but it was too late to take it back now. "Look, I've been…flat-out scared of some things for a long time. And while I was doing that, there are a lot of things that I've been missing. I thought that not being involved would make things better, but…you know nothing good ever happens when I start thinking too much."

"Jack – "

"Let me finish. I love you, Sam. And I love Jake and Abbie. More than I thought I was capable of. I don't want to hurt you and I don't want to run away anymore. What I want is actually pretty simple: you, me, and the kids. All under one roof. For good."

She blinked. "Okay."

"What?"

Sam smiled. "I didn't get a chance to finish what I was saying before. The IOA offered me the position, and I considered it for a couple of seconds. But I realized that what I have here is more important to me now than what happens next with my career."

"So you said no?"

She nodded. "So I said no."

Jack paused for a moment. "Just to clarify, when you said 'okay' before…"

"I believe you had asked a question. Well, it was more of a demand, actually, but still." She smiled. "I want what you want. It's what I've wanted all along."

* * *

TBC...


	17. Fairy Tale

By morning, the reality of their decision was still sinking in. There was a lot that had to get figured out in order to make the whole plan work.

"I'll retire," Jack offered as he and Sam stood in her kitchen, making breakfast together. Jake and Abbie were still asleep in their rooms. "I'll move back here."

"What are you going to do all day if you retire?" Sam asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I'll figure something out."

"You know, I could retire and we could all move to DC…"

"Hell no," he quickly replied. "I already hate my job. Why should I have to keep it and you give up yours?"

She laughed. "All right, all right. I just thought I'd throw it out there."

Jack shook his head. "No. Colorado's home for all of us. I'll figure out something to stay busy."

"Okay…Jack, you're sure about this, right?"

"What?"

"I just…this was really sudden and I want to make sure we're not getting into something that we can't handle." It seemed like his time with the kids had gone well, but she still wanted to make sure that he was really ready for family life.

"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't sure," he told her.

"I think we should wait a little while, before we actually get married, I mean. Give everyone a chance to get used to the idea."

He nodded. "Okay."

They could hear giggling and footsteps down the hall. "Kids are up," Sam observed.

"Should I go free Abbie from her 'cage'?"

"Either that or you get to finish the bacon." He headed off to retrieve the toddler. Jake was on his heels when he returned.

"We want breakfast," the little boy announced.

"Well, it's almost ready," Sam replied. "Can you set the table?"

"Okay."

Jack raised an eyebrow at Sam once Jake and Abbie were occupied. "Should we tell them?" he quietly asked, "Or keep it a secret?" She gave a seemingly-nonchalant shrug, but he could tell from the smile she was trying to hide that she was just teasing him.

"Hey, guys?" he called to get the kids' attention. "I've got something to ask Sam." She laughed as he dropped to one knee in the kitchen.

"Jack!"

"Come on, now, we gotta put on a good show," he told her. "And you can't break tradition." She rolled her eyes, but was smiling as she motioned for him to continue. "Samantha Carter, would you do me the honor of letting me spend the rest of my life with you?"

"And us!" Jake piped up.

"Of course. And these two amazing kids," he added.

Sam grinned. "Yes, but only because you asked so nicely." Jake instantly started cheering, and Abbie joined in, even though they were pretty sure she didn't really know what was going on. "Aren't you supposed to have something for me?" Sam teasingly asked Jack.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot." Her eyes went wide as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little velvet box.

"Jack, I was kidding." She'd assumed that this whole proposal thing had come up suddenly and he therefore hadn't had the opportunity to go jewelry shopping, but apparently not.

"Well, I wanted you to know that I'm serious," he replied as he opened the lid to reveal the diamond ring inside. "I got this in DC to have for the right moment – which didn't at all go as planned, but was still right."

Sam smiled as he took the ring out and slipped it onto her finger. "Yes, it was," she agreed.

"You're supposed to kiss her!" Jake prompted, which made the couple laugh.

"I think the young gentleman is right," Jack agreed as he stood back up and followed orders. Jake came over to get a hug, with his sister right behind him.

"Now we get to be a real family?" he asked his guardians.

Sam grinned. "Well, that's the plan."

* * *

On Monday morning, Sam was in her lab at the SGC when Daniel and Cam came by. "Got a sec to talk?" Cam asked after knocking on her doorframe.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said as she sat back in her chair. "What's up?"

"Well, if the rumors going around here are true," Daniel said, "You're going to be making another career change?"

She rolled her eyes. "God, news travels fast."

The archeologist smiled. "Gossip always moves at light speed."

"Are you really taking command of Atlantis?" Cam asked. "I mean, we all know that you totally deserve it, but…what about Jake and Abbie?"

"And what about Jack?" Daniel added.

"He said it, not me," Cam pointed out in an attempt to keep himself out of trouble. He'd promised to keep his mouth shut about her relationship.

Sam smiled. "Relax, you guys. I'm not leaving." The fact that they both visibly seemed relieved made her smile grow a bit. She was happy to be staying with her friends, and glad to know that not only did they want her around, but they were also concerned for her family's well-being.

"They did offer it to you, though?" Cam wanted to know.

"Yes, they did. And I was definitely honored, but…I can't. You've already said why."

"Did you tell Jack?" Daniel asked.

Sam nodded. "Yep. We're on the same page."

"Good." Daniel had had a front row seat to his friends' decade-long dance around having a relationship. He had thought that maybe Jake and Abbie would bring some permanence and force them to deal with their feelings, so the notion of Sam moving to another galaxy had really had him worried.

"In fact…" she held out her left hand so they could see the ring.

"It's about time," Daniel told her. The mock-annoyance in his tone was balanced out by his smile and the warmth of the hug that he gave her.

"Congratulations," Cam said as he came over and did the same.

"Thank you."

"Have you worked out logistics?"

"We're getting there. Jack went back to DC this morning and he's going to give the president his resignation so he can move here."

"Keeps getting better and better."

"Yeah, Jake and Abbie are real excited. We're hoping this helps them."

"What's today?" Cam asked Daniel. "I think Teal'c owes me money…"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You were betting on us?"

"Yeah, we were betting on you. Kept us waiting so long; what did you expect?"

"Should I ask how much you just won?"

Cam and Daniel shared a look, debating, before they answered, "No," in unison. Sam laughed.

"I want a cut," she told him.

"I'll think about it."

* * *

Now that she'd told the guys, Sam was certain that the SGC grapevine would start buzzing again. She headed down to the infirmary to talk to Janet before her friend heard the news from someone else.

"You got a minute?" she asked as she entered the doorway of Janet's small office.

"Sure. What's up? How was your weekend?"

Sam laughed. "It was really interesting."

Janet cocked her head in confusion. "Did something happen with the kids or Jack?"

"No, they're fine. Better than fine, actually…Jack and I are getting married."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah, I was in disbelief, too. It just kinda…happened."

"Oh, my God. Congratulations!"

She smiled. "Thanks."

"Jake and Abbie must be loving this."

"Yeah, they are. Jake asked me if, once we're married, he and Abbie get to change their names back to O'Neill."

"That's adorable."

"Yeah, they're really happy."

"Have you made any plans yet?"

"Not really. Jack's moving back here – that's about as far as we've gotten. We're going to wait on the ceremony until everyone's adjusted. It won't be anything big anyway, just friends."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Would you be willing to take on maid of honor duties?"

Janet smiled. "I definitely would. Thank you."

"I should be thanking you. And feel free to bring a date…" She laughed when she saw her friend blush. "How are things with Dr. Eric?"

"Really good. He and Cassie get along great; we all went hiking this weekend."

"You think it's serious?"

"I don't know…I've been really scared of getting hurt again, but… He makes me laugh. Sometimes we end up sitting on my couch until three in the morning, just talking."

"Do you love him?"

Janet smiled. "Yeah, I do."

Sam returned her grin. "Looks like maybe we've both found 'happily ever after'."

* * *

TBC...


	18. Kind Advisors

That night, Jack made one of his normal nightly phone calls to Colorado. Sam was working on dinner, so Jake got the phone first and proceeded to talk Jack's ear off about what he'd done that day at TechCamp.

"Did you know that you can run a car off of nothing but light?" the little boy asked. "We saw videos. They don't look anything like normal cars, but they don't need any gas."

"Are you building a solar powered car?"

Jake laughed. "No! Not a real one. We get to make LEGO cars that run off of light power. We're going to have a race. Mine's going to be the fastest."

"I bet it will."

"It's going to be red and green."

"A Christmas car?"

"No…maybe I'll just make it all red."

Jack could hear Sam talking in the background, "Jake, can you give me the phone and then go get your bike off the lawn like you promised you were going to do an hour ago?"

"Okay," he replied.

"And do NOT start riding your bike around; dinner is on the table!" she called after him as he headed out into the garage. "Hey," she told Jack.

"Hey, yourself. It sounds like he's having a great time."

"Yeah, he is. And he's learning a ton. He already wants to go back next year; the older kids get to build robots."

"As long as they're not the kind that try to take over the planet."

"No, more like the kind that only have one function – using an infrared sensor to track a line. So how did today go?"

"Shouldn't you be eating dinner with the kids?"

"It'll reheat. Did something happen?" Suddenly, she was worried; was he trying to avoid answering her question? What if he'd changed his mind?

"No, nothing happened," Jack assured her. "It was a mercifully short conversation, and everything's in the works."

"He accepted your resignation?"

"Yep. Wasn't terribly thrilled about it, but… nothing really he could do."

"Any regrets?" Sam couldn't help but ask.

"Like what?"

"Jack, you've been in the Air Force your entire adult life."

"Not quite," he replied. "I've retired twice before. Third time's the charm, huh?"

She laughed a little. "That's one way of looking at it."

"I'm not doing anything I don't want to do," he assured her. "And I figure that this time, instead of running away from something, I've got something to run toward."

Sam smiled. "I love you, Jack."

"I love you, too."

"Abbie's dinner is starting to become projectiles, so I'll talk to you tomorrow night."

"Okay. Tell her I said to behave."

"Yeah, like that works even when you're here to say it in person."

He shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

* * *

After the kids were in bed, Sam decided that there was someone else she needed to call. She dialed her brother's cell phone as she sat on her bed. "Hey, Sam. You back in the States?" She had told him that her work trip over the past few weeks was to the telescope in Canberra, Australia.

"Yeah, I got back on Friday."

"How was it?"

"Um, it was good. Got a lot of work done."

"Great. How did the kids like DC?"

"They had a great time."

"And Jack did okay?" Sam had finally been forced to come clean with her brother about her relationship when she told him that she was going away. He'd been concerned about where the kids would stay – and had even offered to take them in San Diego. The truth about how things with her and Jack had unfolded had also left him worried, but he'd decided that the other Air Force officer must have cared for her a lot if he'd volunteered to be part of her kids lives. He was willing to give Jack a chance.

"Yeah, I think he got a lot out of the experience," she told Mark. "I'm not entirely sure what happened, but… He decided to quit running from his past."

"That's great."

"Mmm-hmm… and we're getting married."

There was a pause. "You're what?"

"Getting married. Jack's resigned from the Air Force and he's going to move to Colorado as soon as he can."

"Whoa. Did not see that coming. You said you've kind of been involved for two years now, right?"

"Yeah. And we've been really close friends for years before that."

"You think it's going to work out?"

"I think we still have some things to figure out. And he knows it, too; we're not going to have the ceremony right away."

"Okay. Do me a favor?"

"Be careful?"

"Well, yeah, but something else. Tell him that if he even thinks about hurting you, I'll kick his ass. Military training or no military training."

Sam burst out laughing. "Aw, you haven't threatened a guy on my behalf since high school."

"You don't think I mean it?"

"No, no, I do."

"Good."

"I don't think you need to be worried, but thanks, Mark."

"No problem…I really wish Dad could be here to see this. Both of us happy with families that we love. He'd be so pleased."

She smiled a little, knowing her brother was right. "Yeah, I wish he was here, too."

* * *

On Tuesday morning when Jack got back to his office after a meeting, he had an e-mail from Colorado waiting. A smile crossed his face after he opened it. Sam had scanned in a crayon drawing that Jake had made; there were a handful of gray, snowcapped mountains with a rainbow running between the peaks. He could tell that Abbie had contributed as well – purple scribbles filled the bottom margin of the image.

JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT WE'RE THINKING ABOUT YOU, the message read. WE CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO GET HOME. TALK TO YOU TONIGHT.

It seemed incredible to him that all of this was really happening. He actually had a family again. The fear was still there – it probably wouldn't ever go away – but it was manageable. The desire to make sure that Sam and the kids had the life that they deserved was stronger.

There was a knock on the door, and Jack looked up to see George Hammond in his doorway. "What can I do for you, Sir?" Jack asked.

Hammond pointed to the visitor's badge that was clipped to the collar of his button-up shirt. "I'm retired, Jack. I think we can lose the 'Sir'."

He nodded. "Yes, Sir."

Hammond smiled. "I hear you're also soon to be retired."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "It hasn't even been twenty-four hours and you heard already?"

"I have my sources. I also heard that congratulations are in order. You and Colonel Carter finally stopped playing games?"

_How is it that EVERYONE saw this coming ten miles away? _he wondered. "Yeah. She's agreed to put up with me."

"Brave woman."

"We all knew that already."

"Mmm. How are those kids of yours handling things?"

Jack picked up the small picture of Jake and Abbie that was on his desk and handed it to his former boss. "They're doing real well. I think us being in the same place is going to help them a lot."

"Good. Have you two set a date?"

"Not yet, but you, of course, will be welcome."

"I'll be there." Hammond handed the picture back. "Do me a favor, Jack. Make sure you enjoy your family. Time goes so quickly."

He nodded. "Yes, Sir."

"Well, I won't keep you any longer. Maybe I'll see you again before you leave town."

"Sure."

Once Jack was alone, he spent a few moments thinking about the other man's words. He'd known for years how fast time could pass and how quickly things could change. Kind reminders never hurt, though.

Jack picked up the receiver for his phone and hit one of the speed-dial buttons. "Hello?" Sam answered her cell phone a few moments later.

"Hey, it's me."

"Hey. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I got your e-mail."

"Jake made that last night after dinner. I think he's just a tiny bit excited these days."

He smiled. "Really? I never would have guessed."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Over 100 reviews! Thanks so much to everyone who's been following along!**


	19. Wishes

Jack came back out to Colorado the following weekend for a very special occasion. Sunday was Abbie's second birthday, and the first birthday for the kids since they arrived in this reality. Therefore, Sam wanted everything to be absolutely perfect.

She'd decided on a princess theme, since it fit the tiny girl so well. Everything was purple and pink, from the streamers and decorations to the plasticware and plates. They set up chairs and a table in the backyard for a BBQ, and Jack was in charge of the grill. Sam was in the kitchen, cutting up toppings for burgers, when Abbie toddled down the hall from her room.

"Mama, I princess," she exclaimed. She was wearing a plastic, rhinestone-studded dress-up crown and a purple tutu over the pants and t-shirt that she'd been dressed in that morning.

"You forgot this," Jake told his little sister as he joined her, handing her a plastic scepter that matched her crown.

Sam smiled. "You are a very beautiful princess, sweetheart. Are you excited about your party?"

Abbie nodded. "I this many," she told her, holding up a pair of fingers.

The doorbell rang, and Sam sighed. "Who decided to get here early?" she wondered aloud as she went to answer it. They still had too much to get done to have extra people hanging around needing to be entertained. She was surprised to find Janet, her boyfriend, Eric, and Cassie on the front porch.

"I know, we're early," Janet told her, "But I thought you might want some help setting up before everyone else gets here. So… put us to work."

Sam smiled. "Thank you. Jack's in the back getting the grill going."

Eric nodded. "I'm on it," he said as he headed for the back door. "Hey there, birthday girl," he said to Abbie as he passed her and Jake. He let them both give him high-fives before going outside.

"I think I'm almost done with the kitchen," Sam told Cassie and Janet, "But I have more balloons that I wanted to put up around the deck out back."

"I want to do it!" Jake cried.

Cassie smiled. "I'll make sure we don't lose any of them."

"Thanks." The college student took the kids out to the backyard, leaving Janet and Sam together.

"Sounds like you've been busy," the doctor pointed out with a smile.

Sam laughed. "Yeah, you could say that. Jack thinks I'm nuts because she probably won't even remember this, but… I will, you know? And I just want everything to be done right."

Janet smiled. "It'll be fine. Now, what can I do to help?"

* * *

Daniel, Vala, Teal'c, and Cam soon arrived and everyone hung out in the backyard. Jake had made his own rope swing on one of the trees, and he had a great time with Cam and Teal'c playing with that. Abbie plopped down in the grass to watch and blow bubbles, and Cassie and Vala joined her.

"How's the food coming?" Sam asked as she passed by where Jack, Eric, and Daniel were manning the grill.

"You can't rush art," Jack told her.

"Oh, I wasn't aware that you were an artist."

"Sam, I'm hungry!" Jake called from his spot on his swing.

"Take it up with Jack," she replied with a laugh. "I'm hungry, too. How many of you does it take to just flip some burgers and hot dogs?" she asked the guys.

"Apparently, three," Daniel replied.

"I think we're almost done," Eric told her with a laugh.

Jack picked up one of the serving plates and put a few cheeseburgers, normal burgers, and hot dogs on it. "There," he told Sam with mock annoyance as he handed it to her. "Happy? And I don't want to hear about it if your burger is medium instead of medium-well."

She laughed. "Thank you, honey," she sweetly said and gave him a quick kiss before heading over to the table.

* * *

After they finished lunch, they had a big birthday cake for Princess Abigail. Jack lit the candles and everyone sang.

"Now you have to make a wish," Jake instructed his sister, who was sitting on his lap at the table. "But don't tell anyone what it is! It's a special secret wish." Abbie just giggled. "Did you think of one?" he asked.

"Okay."

"Now blow out the candles." She got both of her candles in one shot. Everyone clapped and cheered. It turned to laughter as the toddler reached forward with one hand and tried to scoop up a handful of cake. Sam just barely caught her arm in time.

"Wait for a plate, silly," she told her as Jack picked up a knife and started cutting. Once the birthday girl had her own piece, Jake tried to help encourage her to use a fork, but Abbie had no interest and Sam wasn't inclined to force her. It was her birthday – who cared if she got messy as long as she was having fun?

A stack of presents had been growing in the corner of the deck as everyone arrived, and once they were finished with cake, Abbie could start opening them. Jake stayed at her side and helped her peel off the wrapping paper when she needed assistance. Sam smiled as she and Janet watched from a couple nearby chairs.

"He is a Grade A big brother," she commented. "I hope she knows how lucky she is."

"He's always been protective of her," Janet told her. "From the day she was born…I can't believe it's been two years already."

Sam smiled. "Were you there?"

"Oh, yeah. I delivered her at the SGC. Five pounds, ten ounces, and two weeks early."

Sam laughed. "She had her own schedule."

"Mmm. Jack didn't quite get there in time; it was in the middle of the Prior's plague. Sam was less bothered by that than I would have been in her place."

She smiled a little. "That's a tough one. Family or the planet."

"Yeah, he hated it… I don't think he was quite ready when Jake was born; he still had some skeletons to deal with. But he wanted things to be different with Abbie. Circumstances got in the way."

This was one of the first times that they'd really had a conversation about their former lives, and Sam wanted to take advantage of it. "What was Jake's birth like?" she asked.

Janet smiled a bit. "Mr. Jacob was even more impatient than his sister. He was born at home."

"Really?"

"Mmm-hmm. Jack delivered him – and treated him like he was made of glass until he was at least two years old. He was so afraid… but he got through it. He loved those kids so much." Sam nodded, and they watched as Jake helped Abbie get down from her chair so she could give hugs for her presents. "I've been wondering about Jake," Janet spoke up, "About whether his helpfulness today is really an attempt to share the spotlight."

Sam looked up. "What do you mean?"

"He didn't really get a birthday this year. We were at the Alpha site and it was about a month after we lost his parents… I did what I could, but there wasn't much to celebrate. I wonder if he's missing it now. He grew up too fast; I'll always be sorry for that."

Sam took her hand. "He's alive, Janet. And he's happy." They watched as Cam lifted the little boy up on his shoulder and pretended he was an airplane. "The past is the past and it can't be changed now. There isn't much more that we can hope for."

* * *

Their guests eventually headed home and Jack and Sam got everything from the party cleaned up. Sam sent Jack out on a special errand while she got Abbie in bed. Once he was back, they headed for Jake's room.

The little boy looked up from the book he was reading when he heard a knock on his open doorframe. "Hey, buddy," Sam said as they came in the room. "Good story?"

Jake nodded. "How to Train Your Dragon."

"We're going to be building you a library pretty soon," Jack told him. Jake had a shelf built into his headboard that was already stuffed with books, and a couple more were stacked on top. He'd struggled initially with schoolwork, but had arrived in this reality with a love for reading. He could easily get lost in books intended for children two to three grades ahead of him.

"I don't have to keep the ones that I've finished," he pointed out. "We could give them to the library at school."

"That sounds like a good idea, buddy," Sam agreed. "We can let someone else enjoy them now."

Jake nodded, and then frowned slightly as he realized what she was holding. "What's that?" he asked as he put his book down.

Sam handed him the little plate, which held a cupcake adorned with a candle shaped like a number six. "This is a miniature birthday cake," she told him.

"For who?"

"For you, pal," Jack replied as they sat on his bed with him.

"It's not my birthday," Jake pointed out.

"We know that, but we thought we'd celebrate a little late."

"It was months ago," he continued to protest. "I'm 6 and a half now."

"It can be a half-birthday cake if you want," Jack told him.

"We got to celebrate a birthday with your sister for this year," Sam explained, "But we didn't have one with you. We know we're really late, but we wanted you to have a little bit of celebration, too."

Jake slowly nodded. "Okay."

Jack pulled out his lighter and lit the candle. Jake watched the flame for a moment before blowing it out. "Hey, Mr. Speedy, we were going to sing," Sam told him.

"It's probably better that we didn't," Jack spoke up. She swatted him on the shoulder.

"Did you at least make a wish first?" Sam asked as Jake took the cupcake and started peeling the wrapper off of it.

The little boy shook his head as he handed her the candle. "I didn't need to."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: As always, thanks for the feedback! You guys are awesome.**


	20. Revelations

It took a little more time than Jack would have liked to get his work responsibilities turned over to a new general, but at the end of July he was able to move out to Colorado. He packed up his stuff and then flew across the country while his belongings and truck were moved by professionals.

On the day that the moving truck was supposed to arrive, Jake and Abbie spent the morning by the living room window, watching the street. Sam was pretty sure that Jake thought of the van's arrival as the real proof that Jack was moving in. While he was still living out of a suitcase, it was just like any other visit. But once the van showed up – this was real.

"Do you see it yet?" she asked them as she set plates out on the table.

"No," Jake replied.

"Well, breakfast is ready; you can go back to watching after you eat."

"What if it gets lost?"

"It's not going to get lost," she assured him. "I'm sure they've got GPS." Jake seemed skeptical, but got up and came to the table.

They had just finished eating when the doorbell rang. Jake instantly shot out of his chair and over to the window to look. "They're here! They're here!" he exclaimed.

"Giving him sugar with breakfast was probably a bad idea, huh?" Jack asked Sam. She laughed.

* * *

They spent the rest of the day getting things unloaded and put away. Jack had sold a lot of his furniture, since Sam already had most things that they needed. He'd brought clothes and tools and some other odds and ends.

At one point, when Jack went to put some things in the garage, he was surprised to find that Jake had silently followed him. "What's wrong, pal?" he asked as he saw the little boy standing in the doorway, staring at him.

Jake raised a hand to point at what Jack was holding. "You have fishing poles."

He looked down at them. "Yeah, I do. I was supposed to take them up to Minnesota the last time that I went, but I never actually ended up going."

"To the cabin?" Jake asked.

Jack nodded. "That's right. You went to the cabin with your father?"

"Last summer. It was the first time he took me, other than when I was a baby. We ended up having to come back early 'cause of his work, but it was still fun. Just us."

"That sounds like a great time. You left the girls at home?"

Jake nodded. "Abbie had a cough and Mom was worried about her."

"Ah." Jake was still staring pensively at the fishing poles, and Jack decided he had to try something. It might blow up in his face, but at least he would have tried. "I've got an idea," he told the little boy. "How about we plan a trip for us to go to the cabin together? We can make some new memories to go right along with the ones you've already got."

Jake was quiet for a long minute, but finally nodded. "Okay."

Jack smiled. "Okay."

* * *

Everything was finally put in its place by dinnertime. Once the kids were in bed, Jack and Sam settled down together on the couch to watch TV. After flipping through the channels for a bit, they landed on some cable-channel movie that neither had any strong objections to.

"Does it feel like home?" Sam asked at one point.

Jack thought about it. "Yeah, it does."

"Good."

"How about you? This house has gotten pretty full this year."

She smiled. "I like it full."

"It is kind of nice, isn't it?" he agreed. If someone had told him five years ago – hell, even one year ago – that he'd have a family with Samantha Carter, he would have had them committed to a psychiatric institution. And yet… here they were.

"Mmm-hmm."

They could hear a door softly creak open down the hall, and little footsteps approached. "Hey, pal, what are you still doing up?" Jack asked as Jake joined them. He'd tucked the little boy into his bed over an hour earlier.

"I couldn't sleep," he replied.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Sam asked.

Jake shook his head. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Can it wait until morning, buddy? You really should be sleeping." Jake frowned, looking down.

"What have you got there?" Jack asked him; Jake was holding one hand behind his back, hiding something from view. After a moment of hesitation, he showed them what he was carrying – the notebook that Sam had given him a few months earlier.

"I wanted to show it to you," he explained.

Jack and Sam shared a look; both of them knew that this was a big step for Jake. The secrets of his past had been closely guarded and only came out in slow trickles. If he was willingly coming to them now…sleep could wait.

"Come sit down," Sam told him, moving over so that Jake could sit between them. The little boy obliged, crossing his legs and holding his book on his lap.

"I did what you said," he told Sam. "I wrote down things that I remember. As much as I could." He turned to the first page and showed them the list of names. "These were all the people that I cared about. And they cared about me." Several of the names were familiar to them, such as personnel from the SGC. Others were unknown, possibly belonging to Jake's friends or their neighbors.

"You want to tell us about them?" Jack asked.

Jake nodded, and turned to the next page. His mother's dogtags slid out onto the couch, and he picked them up. "These belonged to my mom. She gave them to me before she died." On the paper, there was a list of words and phrases that described her in Jake's careful handwriting. "She was pretty and nice and brave," he told them. "Just like you are, Sam."

She kissed the top of his head. "Thank you, buddy."

"I don't have anything that I kept from anyone else," Jake admitted. "There wasn't any time when we left Earth."

"That's okay," Jack told him. "Your memories are good enough.

The little boy nodded and turned to the next page. "This is about my dad. We made glider airplanes and flew them in the park. Last fall, he was going to teach me to ride a bike, but… he got really busy at work with all the bad stuff that was happening. He worked late a lot. But he would always come tell me goodnight, no matter what. Sometimes I would wake up when he came in, but I would pretend to be asleep. He would always say, 'I love you more than the moon and stars'."

He flipped to the next page, which was dedicated to the other members of SG-1. "This is about Daniel, Cam, and Martouf. I got my middle name from Daniel, 'cause he went away before I was born, but he came back. Not many people get to come back when they go away like he did."

Jack nodded. "No, they don't."

"I called them my uncles, but they weren't really, not like Uncle Mark. They were my mom and dad's friends. But they loved me and Abbie like we were all family…"

* * *

Jake eventually fell asleep on the couch, but he'd made it pretty far into his book of memories. Jack carefully scooped him up and carried him back to his bedroom while Sam retrieved his notebook and put it on his desk.

"We should get a case or something for these," she whispered to Jack as she put Jake's dogtags back inside of his book. He nodded as he set Jake down in his bed and pulled the blanket over him.

Sam came over and kissed the little boy's forehead. "Sweet dreams, buddy," she told him. "I'm going to go check on Abbie," she said to Jack. "See you in our room?"

"Yeah." He made sure Jake was tucked in and turned out the lamp by his bed. He was about to leave, but turned back. "I love you more than the moon and the stars," he whispered to Jake before heading out of the room.

* * *

TBC...


	21. Moments

One afternoon a week later, when Sam pulled her car into the driveway at her house, she smiled to see Jack and Jake playing in the front yard. Jake had a baseball glove on his left hand and they were tossing a ball back and forth.

"Good catch!" Jack exclaimed when Jake managed to grab a somewhat errant throw. The little boy smiled proudly before tossing it back.

"Looks like you're having fun," Sam commented as she retrieved Abbie from her car seat in the back of her Volvo.

"Tons!" Jake exclaimed. Abbie was reaching for Jack to give him a hug, so Sam handed the toddler over.

"He's got a good arm," Jack told Sam. She smiled, glad to see the two of them spending time together. She knew that Charlie had also been very into baseball, but so far it seemed like Jack wasn't going to let memories of the past keep him from sharing activities with Jake. Maybe they were all finally putting everything behind them…

"Can you catch, too, Sam?" Jake asked as he joined them.

"Mmm, I've played a few times. Maybe we can all go toss a ball around at the park this weekend."

"What did you get for me to take to the picnic tomorrow?" Jake asked, and Sam inwardly groaned. His summer camp was doing a potluck the following day and Jake was supposed to bring dessert. She'd said that she'd pick something up on the way home, but it had totally slipped her mind.

"Sorry, buddy, I forgot. I'll run back out to the store right now, okay?"

Jake didn't seem as concerned as she'd feared. "Okay. Can I come with you?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. That way, you can pick out what you want to bring."

"What about dinner?" Jack asked.

"We'll grab something on the way back. Chinese sound good?"

"Sure."

"Okay. Hop in, Jake," she said after unlocking the car.

"Bye!" he called to Jack and Abbie before climbing into the backseat. The toddler waved as the car pulled back out of the driveway.

Jack looked down at her once they were gone. "When you grow a few inches – and learn some hand-eye coordination – you can come play baseball, too." She giggled.

* * *

A half hour later, Sam and Jake had finished at the grocery store and were on their way over to Hunan Manor, their favorite local Chinese place.

"These are perfect," Jake proclaimed as he looked at the container of cupcakes in his lap. It was at least the third time he'd said so since they left the store.

"I'm glad you're happy, buddy." The dozen cupcakes had green icing and either basketballs, baseballs, or footballs on the top. Since Jake was attending a sports camp, she'd thought that they were a good fit. He loved all of those activities, and the kids were also able to go swimming, play soccer, and participate in other games like capture the flag, scavenger hunts, and obstacle courses.

"I like playing baseball with Jack," Jake proclaimed. "I can catch pop flies now."

"That's great. Maybe we'll see about finding a team for you to play with in the spring?"

"Yay!"

Sam quickly looked back to give him a smile. As she turned around, she realized that there were moving headlights shining in the passenger side windows of the car. A car was running the light at the intersection that they were crossing. She tried to swerve, to do anything to prevent the inevitable, but there wasn't enough time.

She could hear Jake scream, "Mommy!" a split-second before the collision occurred. The car was slammed sideways by an unbelievable force, and her head hit the window, cracking the glass. Then everything went black.

* * *

Jack looked at his watch for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. It was getting close to sunset and Sam and Jake still weren't home yet.

"Where Mama?" Abbie asked as she sat on the floor amid some blocks that she was playing with.

Jack sighed as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "That's a real good question," he told her. He pulled up Sam's number and dialed her phone, but there wasn't any answer. "Hey, Sam, it's me," he said once her voicemail picked up. "I don't know where you are, but you've got a couple hungry people waiting here. Call me. Or better yet, show up at home. Bye."

He turned back to Abbie, who was offering one of her blocks to him. "That better be some pretty impressive dessert your brother's getting," he muttered as he sat down to play with her.

* * *

Sam slowly opened her eyes. Everything was fuzzy and seemed to be moving in slow motion. There were lights in front of her, flashing red and blue in a steady pattern. There were voices all around, but she couldn't make out anything that they were saying. _Where am I? What's going on?_

She tried to move, but her body wouldn't cooperate. Her arms felt like they each weighed a ton and her legs…something heavy was on top of her legs. She tried to look down to see what it was, but found that her head was restricted.

"Stay still for me, ma'am," a voice told her, but it sounded far away and muffled. _Why do I need to stay still?_ Ignoring that request, she tried harder to look around and see what was happening, but the motion caused some kind of liquid to run into her left eye. _Blood_, she suddenly realized as the metallic scent fully registered. There was a lot of blood nearby. Obviously some of it was coming from her head; the voice belonged to a person who was putting pressure on a laceration near her hairline.

She was starting to get lightheaded, so she tried to take a couple deep breaths, but blinding pain instantly radiated through her chest. _Broken ribs, undoubtedly. Probably worse._

"Try to remain calm," the voice from earlier told her as he tried to wipe some of the blood away from her eye. "We're taking care of you; we're going to get you out of here."

_Here? Where is here?_ She couldn't remember what had happened. There was white fabric in front of her, stained red in places with blood. An airbag, she suddenly realized. She was in her car. Or, rather, what was left of her car. The dashboard had been deformed and the steering wheel was pressed against her legs, pinning her in her seat. The windshield was cracked and broken… and smeared with something green.

_Where did the green come from? There's something important about green…_

Icing. It came to her in an abrupt flash of clarity, even as unconsciousness began to pull at her body. The icing on the cupcakes was green. Jake's cupcakes.

"Jake?" she croaked out, but she could barely get enough air into her body to stay conscious, let alone to speak. "Jake?" she tried again, attempting to turn her head.

The owner of the voice was holding her still, with a little more force this time. "Calm down, ma'am," he told her. "I need you to just stay still."

Sam didn't really care what he needed. "Wh-where…" she tried to choke out, but couldn't. She coughed involuntarily; in addition to pain, it also brought blood into her mouth. That didn't matter, though; she could worry about herself later, after she knew what had happened to Jake. _Is he okay?_ She couldn't see any trace of him with her limited field of view, and then a terrifying thought suddenly occurred to her. _Oh, God, oh, God, they hit his side of the car…_

Everything was beginning to go dark around the edges, and Sam felt someone force something plastic against her mouth and nose. "I'm giving you some oxygen," the voice said. "Keep breathing, ma'am; stay with us…"

"Jake," she futility tried to get out one more time before losing consciousness.

* * *

TBC...


	22. Shattered

By the time it was starting to get dark, Jack was really worried. He'd left a half-dozen voicemails on Sam's phone and hadn't gotten any response. Abbie had started getting cranky since she was hungry, so he'd heated up some leftover pasta for her.

"Damnit," he muttered as he hung up his phone after yet another attempt to call his fiancée. Something was seriously wrong; he could just feel it. There was no other reason for them to not be back yet. "Hey, princess, how about we go for a ride?" he suggested to Abbie as he picked her up.

"Truck?" she asked.

"Yep, we're going for a ride in the truck." He was just about to open the front door when his cell phone started ringing. Jack instantly pulled it out of his pocket and answered it. "Sam?"

"No, Jack; it's Janet."

He frowned and was about to end the call as quickly as possible, but it dawned on him that Janet might be helpful. "Have you heard from Sam recently?"

There was a slight pause that worried him. "That's why I'm calling. I'm at the infirmary at the SGC… You need to get here, now."

* * *

Jack broke the speed limit on every road on the way to the SGC. Janet had told him disturbingly few details on the phone, other than the fact that there'd been an accident, and it was very serious. After Sam's Air Force ID had been found in the car, they'd been brought to the SGC for treatment. That instruction was designed to protect them; a normal hospital would have discovered that Sam and Jake both had some strange, unidentified substance – Naquadah – in their blood.

Some poor hapless Airman was waiting at the entrance to the base to escort Jack down to the infirmary. He unfortunately had no answers for the retired General and therefore got quite a bit of his wrath during elevator ride. Abbie had picked up on Jack's tension and was near tears by the time they reached the infirmary, where Janet was waiting.

"Where are they?" Jack demanded.

"Jack, calm down."

"How the hell do you expect me to calm down?"

The diminutive doctor gave him a stern look. "You're not going to be able to see either of them until you do." Jack forced himself to keep his mouth shut and took a couple breaths. "Thank you."

"How are they?"

"Critical, at the moment. They got hit going through an intersection; the other driver ran the red light. According to the police on the scene, there was serious damage to the car; the firemen had to cut the roof off to get them out. Sam has a concussion, broken ribs, and a punctured lung. She's in surgery with Dr. Lam at the moment."

"And Jake?" He knew there had to be some significance to the fact that she'd told him about Sam first. _If he was okay, she would have just said so…_

Janet held his gaze. "We're trying to get him stable enough for surgery. He flatlined in the ambulance, but we got him back. He's had extensive head trauma but we're not sure yet how bad it really is. Right now, we're most concerned about intracranial hemorrhaging."

"In English, Doc."

"He's bleeding into his skull, and his brain is swelling. We need to cut away part of his skull to reduce the pressure. We're hoping to get him prepped for that surgery very shortly."

He'd known it was bad, but hadn't been prepared for how bad. Broken bones were one thing, but this was completely different. _I was just playing ball with Jake a couple hours ago and now…_ "Wh-what are his chances?"

She was quiet for a long minute. "We're not sure… Would you like to see him before the surgery? I think he could use a little love and a little luck right now."

"Yeah." Janet led him over to Jake's bed; he was hooked up to a ventilator and wires led to different machines. For a moment when Jack looked at him, he saw Charlie – bloody and lifeless – but he closed his eyes to banish that thought.

This wasn't the same. Jake was going to be okay. He had to be.

"Hey, pal," he whispered to the unconscious little boy. Jack took his left hand; the right one was in a splint. "You gotta be strong, Jake. Me and Sam and your sister are here waiting for you. You… you just gotta fight."

"Jakey sleep?" Abbie quietly asked.

"Yeah, princess. He's sleeping right now so he can feel better."

Abbie blew him a kiss. "Feel better!" she told her brother.

Jack held her a little closer. "Hear that, pal?" he asked Jake. "We're right here waiting. Just…stay with us."

* * *

Jake was soon declared stable enough for surgery and a couple of the med techs whisked him away. Janet offered Jack a small, tense smile before following them; everyone was going to do absolutely everything they could for both Jake and Sam.

Abbie was starting to get sleepy, and one of the nurses offered a bed for Jack to put her on, but he wasn't interested. He wasn't letting any other member of his family get too far away from him, not tonight. He found a seat on a bench against the wall and let Abbie snuggle up in his lap to go to sleep. Jack was left to wait by himself, feeling very alone.

About ten minutes later, Daniel wordlessly sat down beside his friend. Jack nodded a greeting to him. "Hank called you?" he quietly asked.

Daniel nodded. "Yeah. Any news?"

"Nope."

"They're in surgery?"

"Yep."

And with that, they settled into comfortable silence. Over the next hour, the rest of SG-1 slowly trickled in and joined them. "Any word?" General Landry asked as he was the last to join the group that now included Teal'c, Cam, and Vala.

Jack shook his head. He handed Abbie, who was still sleeping, to Daniel before getting up and starting to pace back and forth. "This is taking too long," he muttered. "They'd come say something if anything had happened, right?"

"Surgery usually takes a while," Daniel tried to calm him down.

"You think there's a reason nobody suggested waiting in the observation gallery? At least then we'd know what was going on."

"I think that was for both your peace of mind and the docs'," Cam commented. "Do you really want to watch?"

Jack thought about it for a moment, and then shook his head. As much as he wanted to know what was happening, he really didn't need to see someone taking a knife to Sam or Jake. "No."

They all took turns at trying to distract him over the next hour. Everyone was instantly alert when Carolyn came around the corner. "What's going on?" Jack asked her.

"Colonel Carter's out of surgery. She should wake up within the next hour. She's going to be hurting for a few days, but there isn't any permanent damage."

"And Jake?"

"Dr. Fraiser still has him in the other OR. If you want to wait with Sam, I'll have someone come talk to you as soon as we know anything."

* * *

Sam was still unconscious when Jack approached her bed. She seemed incredibly pale and fragile. A few stitches closed a gash on her left temple that ran along her hairline. The blood had been washed off of her face and out of her hair. The heart monitor beeped at a steady interval, its continuous rhythm reminding him that their situation still could be much worse than it currently was.

Jack sighed as he sat down in the chair beside the bed. Abbie was curled up in his arms, still asleep. "Well this sure isn't how tonight was supposed to end," he murmured.

Daniel lingered behind him, unsure whether he should speak up. "Jack?" he finally whispered. "Do you want me to take Abbie back to the house? Let her sleep in her own bed?"

He shook his head. "No. No, she can stay here. When Sam wakes up…"

Daniel nodded. "Okay. Janet said we could get her set up in the corner. It's a little darker and less busy…"

"The kid's fine, Jackson," Jack snapped. "Leave it alone."

He was a bit taken aback, but knew that Jack needed someone to be mad at and he'd made himself a convenient target. "Okay," he agreed with his hands raised in surrender. "We're all going to stick around a little longer, wait for word on Jake."

Jack turned around and saw that Landry, Vala, Cam, and Teal'c were still in a group by the infirmary entrance, watching this exchange. "You don't have to stay," he told the other man, his voice a little gentler than before.

"You really think you're going to get us to leave?" Daniel asked. This was one of those incidents that proved they were all a family. Jack finally shook his head.

* * *

TBC...


	23. Waiting Game

It was another thirty minutes before Sam started to wake up. She was confused for a moment when her eyes first fluttered open and she saw the ceiling of the infirmary above her. She turned her head to see Jack sitting nearby. "J-Jack?" she barely managed to say. Her throat felt like sandpaper.

He instantly stood, still holding Abbie. "Hey."

"W-what happened?"

He'd known that she probably wouldn't remember, and had been preparing himself to tell her, but now that the moment had come, Jack found that none of that made it any easier. "You were in an accident, Sam."

She frowned slightly. "An accident?" Sam tried to cough in an attempt to make breathing and speaking easier, but that abrupt exhalation felt like a bomb going off in her chest. Jack saw her eyes go wide in pain.

"Take it easy," he told her. "Breathe slowly; just relax."

"Oh, God," she whimpered as the white hot pain started to fade. "Broken ribs?"

"Yeah, three of them. And a punctured lung."

After a few more careful breaths, she was starting to feel better. "What kind of accident?"

"You went out to the store…" And then it started to come flooding back.

"The car… Jack, where's Jake? Is he okay?"

"He's in surgery. It's…it's not that good, Sam."

"Tell me," she demanded, trying to sit up. He could see her wince, but she wasn't going to let the pain stop her.

"He's got a fractured wrist, and I think there's something with his leg, too. The big thing… they had to do surgery to relieve the pressure in his head. Janet wouldn't give me a prognosis until they were finished with that."

She forced herself to keep breathing slow and evenly. "How long has it been?"

"A few hours… I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I might lose both of you."

Sam closed her eyes, imagining his anguish. She'd never wanted to put him through something like that again. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry… You want to hold the princess?" She nodded, so he laid Abbie down on the bed beside her. Sam gently kissed the sleeping toddler's forehead.

Janet approached them a moment later, pulling her scrubs cap off of her head. "How's Jake?" Jack instantly asked.

"He's a tough little boy. We finished surgery; unfortunately now the only thing we can do is wait to see what the results are."

"Can I see him?" Sam asked.

The doctor shook her head. "No, you need to stay in bed."

"Please, Janet!" This wasn't just about her. Her child – for that's what Jake had become – was more important than herself. Janet had also once been charged with the little boy's care and understood the instinct. It was something the women would always share between them.

"Let me go get a wheelchair," she finally said. "You're definitely not walking."

* * *

It was probably a good thing that Carolyn had gone home for the night, or else she likely would have had a fit. Sam was barely able to get up, but stubbornly did. Janet wheeled her across the infirmary to where Jake was set up in the corner. His bowl-cut brown hair had been shaved off for the surgery and it made him seem even sicklier than he already was. A suture line ran across the right side of his skull, and his face was bruised and had a few small lacerations. The tube from the ventilator ran down his throat since he still wasn't breathing on his own.

Sam carefully took his left hand in both of hers; the right one was now encased in a blue plaster cast that stopped a couple inches below his elbow. "Hey, buddy," she whispered to him. "I'm right here, okay? You're going to be all right, Jake. You…" She trailed off, and Jack saw a tear roll down her cheek. "I'm so sorry, Jake. I'm sorry."

Jack put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault, Sam," he tried to tell her. It was the other driver – who was now in a morgue somewhere – that had messed up. She'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, Sam shook his hand off, and she didn't answer.

* * *

Janet soon returned and insisted that Sam go back to bed. Guest quarters had been set up for Jack and Abbie so that they didn't have to leave the mountain. Everyone had the chance to get a few hours of sleep, but it wasn't exactly peaceful rest for Sam.

In her dreams, she was back at the crash site. She was awake and aware of the commotion around the car. A few good Samaritans who had been on the street were calling for help or trying to check on her. She wasn't hurt as badly as she'd been in reality, and wasn't trapped inside of the car. "Where's Jake?" she asked one man as he helped her get out.

He seemed confused. "Who?"

"The little boy in the car. Is he okay?"

"He's gone," he told her.

She froze. "What?"

"The woman took him."

"What woman? Where?" He pointed down the street. Jake was a few blocks away, being led away by a figure that Sam recognized as Janet. "Wait, stop!" she called as she ran after them. "Stop!"

They finally did, and turned to face her. Jake was a bloody mess, staring up at her hauntingly. "I should have known better," Janet said.

Sam shook her head. "I don't understand."

"I never should have brought them here. I never should have trusted you!"

"Janet – "

"He would have been better off dead by the Ori's hands than here with you," she added before turning around and continuing to walk away. Sam tried to follow, but her legs wouldn't cooperate. She was frozen in place.

"Janet, please! I'm sorry. I tried…" She had no idea how to finish that sentence. What did it matter what she'd tried? Jake was still fighting for his life in a hospital bed. And it was all her fault. "Please, I'm sorry!" she cried as they got farther away. "Don't take him, please!"

Sam suddenly shot awake, the pain in her chest reminding her that she had in fact been seriously injured in the accident. Terror flowed through her as she remembered her dream. She couldn't lose Jake, not now. Ignoring her pain, she got out of bed and headed across the infirmary.

* * *

When Jack arrived in the infirmary after getting Abbie some cereal for breakfast, he was surprised to find that Sam's bed was empty. A few worst-case scenarios ran through his head before he realized that he could hear voices coming from another section of the facility – voices that he recognized. He found that Sam was once again beside Jake's bed, but this time she hadn't waited for a wheelchair. And she'd been caught by Carolyn.

"You need to be back in bed and getting some rest," the facility's CMO was arguing. "You had surgery roughly 12 hours ago!"

"I'm fine," Sam protested, but she sure didn't look fine. She had a death-grip on the bed's railing in order to remain standing, was white as a sheet, and her eyes were rimmed with dark circles. It was obvious that she was exhausted and in a lot of pain and in no condition to be up and about – or having this argument.

Abbie's little bag of cereal fell to the floor as she started whimpering, her arms outstretched to Sam. "Mama," she cried. "Mama sick!"

Sam absolutely froze. "I'm okay," she started to tell the toddler, but her legs suddenly gave out and Carolyn was just barely able to catch her. Abbie was REALLY crying now. "I want to be near Jake," she quietly told the doctor. "Can I get a bed over here?"

She nodded, knowing that was probably the best way to end this standoff with her rebellious patient. Jake had been put in a quiet corner of the infirmary that was close to the OR in case it was needed again.

Abbie was still whimpering by the time that Sam got settled on a new bed. Jack sat the toddler down so that Sam could hold her. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," she whispered. "I didn't mean to scare you." She could feel how much that small amount of exertion had exhausted her and wondered how bad she really looked.

"She's not the only one you scared the crap out of," Jack softly pointed out.

Sam looked up at him. "I'm sorry. I just needed to see Jake. I needed him to know he's not alone." _I needed to make sure he was still here,_ she silently added. Jack slowly nodded. "He looks a little better this morning, doesn't he?" she asked. "Not as pale?"

Jack turned around and glanced over at Jake. If the little boy's pallor had changed, he couldn't see it, but wasn't about to tell her that. "Yeah, maybe… You hungry?"

"Yeah…" A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Did you and Abbie have dinner last night?"

"I heated something up for her, but I kinda forgot about eating once we got here."

Sam looked to where the toddler's breakfast had been dropped on the floor. "I guess she needs something else now."

"Yeah, I'll go grab some stuff for all of us from the mess." She nodded, and looked to Abbie once he was gone. The little girl was carefully watching her, her eyes still big and wet.

"Mama okay?" In that moment, Sam wondered what – if anything – Abbie remembered from her home reality. Had this triggered some memory from seeing her real mother injured and dying? She'd never meant to hurt or scare the little girl like that. She was messing up everything!

Sam leaned down and kissed Abbie's forehead. "Yeah, sweetheart. I'm gonna be okay."

* * *

Out in the corridor, Jack took a minute to just lean against the wall and breathe. This was the last situation that he'd ever, EVER wanted to be in again, but somehow it had happened. And he couldn't let himself fall apart because Sam needed him. He'd always been afraid of ending up in some horrible mess where she despised him for his inadequacies, but now that they were right in the middle of such a disaster, he wasn't willing to let it happen. For right now, they still had Jake, and that was all he could let himself focus on. That was the only way he could keep it together.

Jack took a few more deep breaths, and then continued on his way. _I can do this,_ he told himself. _I have to._

* * *

TBC...


	24. Guilt

When Jack returned, Janet was there checking on Jake. "What's going on?" he asked as he set the tray down.

"We got some test results back."

"And?"

"It looks like the surgery did its job; his intracranial pressure is back down to the normal range. We won't know until he wakes up if it was in time, though."

"If it wasn't?" Sam asked.

Janet held her gaze, then Jack's. "There's the possibility of brain damage, but right now I'm optimistic. Children can tolerate higher pressure levels for longer than adults. I know it's not what you want to hear, but we just have to wait and see."

* * *

They were still waiting three days later. Jake's condition hadn't deteriorated, but it hadn't really improved, either. The longer he stayed unconscious, the lower the chance of a good outcome.

Sam was still recovering, too, and spent most of each day sitting beside Jake's bed. As she'd gotten stronger, Carolyn had had a more difficult time trying to get her patient to follow instructions. Jack tried to make sure that she didn't get overtired, but she wasn't really talking to him. Or anyone else, for that matter. He finally decided to get drastic.

Around noon, an Airman brought a visitor down to the infirmary. Sam's eyes filled with tears when she looked up and saw her big brother.

"Hey, Sammy," he said as she got up and hugged him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Jack called me. Five words that I really never want to hear again: 'there's been a car accident'."

Her tears spilled; she'd never wanted her brother to feel that terror again. "I'm sorry."

Mark hugged her closer. "No, no, don't be sorry. I'm so glad you're okay. For a second I was so scared…" He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. How's the little guy doing?"

"We're not sure. He hasn't woken up yet, so…"

"He will," he assured her. "Just keep telling yourself that."

Sam looked down at Jake. "This wasn't how I wanted you to meet him." They'd planned on Mark and his family coming to Colorado for a week earlier in the summer in order to visit, but that trip had been postponed when Sam had to go to the Midway Station. They had intended to reschedule, but it hadn't happened yet. So this was the first time that Mark was seeing his nephew – looking tiny and practically lifeless in a hospital bed.

"It wasn't what I was planning on, either," he told his sister, "But I'm glad that I'm here."

Jack walked in, holding Abbie, and Mark offered him a little smile. "Thanks for letting me know," he told the other man, reaching to shake his hand. "And it's nice to meet you face-to-face."

"No problem, and likewise."

"This is Abbie?" Mark asked his sister, indicating the toddler. She nodded. "She's beautiful…It's so strange how much she looks like you. She looks a lot like Lisa did when she was a baby, too."

Sam glanced at Jack. "Blonde hair and blue eyes, that's all."

He frowned a little. "No, I mean, she really looks like you…" It was one coincidence too many, and Mark wasn't stupid. "What's going on?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Exactly what I said. Why are you at an Air Force facility instead of a normal hospital if this was a car accident? Why did I need security clearance in order to be able to come see you?"

Sam looked to Jack. "What kind of clearance did Landry authorize?"

"High enough for the truth," he replied. "All of it."

That didn't help Mark's confusion at all. "Sam?"

She took a deep breath. "I don't work on deep space radar telemetry. I use alien technology to travel to other planets, even other galaxies. And Jake and Abbie are biologically my and Jack's kids – they were just born in a parallel universe."

* * *

Mark was understandably stunned. They spent most of the afternoon talking about what had really happened to her and to their father over the past decade. It was a great deal to take in, but it also made a lot of things make more sense.

"So Dad wasn't working, he was on other planets?" Mark asked. They were both seated on her bed, with Sam holding Abbie. Jack had gone back to the house to pick up some things for them.

Sam nodded. "He was very involved with the Tok'ra's efforts against the Goa'uld."

"I knew he was different after he miraculously got well… I mean, he'd never had any interest in trying to make things better between us. And his attitude… I just figured it was a near-death experience kind of thing, but…"

"In a way, it was."

"Wow… I bet I'd have a hard time believing some of the stories you could tell me, right?"

She smiled a little. "Probably."

"I'm glad that you made your dreams of going to space come true, even if it wasn't exactly how you'd planned. I can remember watching you put 'fins' on your red wagon and call it your rocketship."

"Yeah."

"So…with all the technology that you've got around here, there's nothing else that anyone can do for Jake?"

Sam looked over at the little boy. "No."

"I can't believe what they've been through. I mean… us losing Mom was bad enough, and we were nowhere near as young. And I don't know if I can wrap my mind around the concept of parallel universes, so it's amazing that they've adjusted so well. Especially considering the differences here."

"Amazing is a pretty good word to describe them all around."

"Mmm. And on top of all of that, now this..."

Sam sighed, looking away. "Yeah."

* * *

Mark was staying at a local hotel, and finally headed off around dinnertime to check in and get something to eat. Daniel took Abbie down to the mess hall to get her some dinner, but Sam insisted that she wasn't hungry. "You okay?" Jack asked her as he sat with her.

"Yeah, just… a lot to think about. I've wanted to tell him the truth for so long."

"I know."

"I keep thinking about what we were saying. After everything that Jake and Abbie have been through… they were brought here to be safe. I was supposed to give them a new life."

"You did, Sam. This wasn't your fault. The other driver ran the light."

"I veered away."

"What?"

"I turned away from the other car. I saw it coming, and I turned away. Which put the front-left part of the car further away and Jake…" And then he understood. Turning had made the passenger side backseat the closest thing to the oncoming car. Jake had been in that seat.

"He'd still be pretty bad off if he'd been in the front seat and had the airbag go off in his face," he pointed out, but that didn't seem to be any comfort. "It was just a reflex, Sam. I would have done the exact same thing."

"But it wasn't you. I was the one who forgot the stupid dessert and I was the one who let Jake come along to the store."

"There was no way you could have known."

"That doesn't help him very much, does it?"

_No, unfortunately, it doesn't._ "Sam – "

"He called me Mommy," she blurted out.

Jack frowned. "Huh?"

"Maybe I'm imagining it, but right before the accident, I thought that Jake called me Mommy."

He wasn't sure what to say to that; Jake hadn't ever called either of them Mom or Dad or anything of the sort. It definitely meant something if it had really happened, but if it was just her mind playing tricks…

"I was supposed to take care of him," she quietly continued. I was supposed to keep them safe. That's why they're here. I was supposed to protect them."

"Unless you're going to put them in glass bubbles, there are no guarantees. There are plenty of things in this world that you have no control over."

Sam nodded. "I know. I can't stop thinking about it. When they first got here, I was just thinking about making them happy, giving them a home. I didn't consider…there are so many risks, Jack. How do you stand it? How do people make the choice to bring kids into this world, knowing all of the dangers they can face?"

"Because they don't think about it. They can't. They'll go insane if they do."

"I feel like I'm halfway there already… This is so much bigger of a responsibility than I imagined."

"Yeah, but it's OUR responsibility," he pointed out, unsure if she would believe him. _I should have been here with her from the beginning,_ he thought. _This WAS mainly her responsibility for way too long._ "You're not on your own with this, Sam. Not anymore."

She slowly nodded, though her eyes didn't meet his "I know," she stated as she looked back down at Jake. "A year ago, I didn't even know that he existed. And now… now I can't imagine my life without him or Abbie."

"Yeah. I know it took me a while, but I can't either."

"I now understand what people mean when they say that being a parent is like having your heart walk around in another body… Jack?"

"Mmm?"

"I'm scared."

He sighed. "Yeah. So am I."

* * *

TBC...


	25. Fears and Miracles

When Daniel brought Abbie back, the toddler was half-asleep and happily curled up on Sam's bed. "You have any problems?" Jack asked his friend as he draped a blanket over her.

He shook his head. "Oh, to be two years old again. Nothing to worry about and all it takes is a hot dog with ketchup to completely make your day."

Sam smiled. "Thanks, Daniel."

"No problem. I think I'm gonna go home, but I'll come and visit in the morning before the team heads out." SG-1 had a mission the following day.

Jack watched as Abbie lost her battle with sleep, while Sam remained at Jake's side, holding his hand. They stayed quiet for a long moment. "Carolyn was talking about releasing you tomorrow," Jack finally spoke up.

"I know. I'm still going to stay with Jake during the day." He nodded, having expected that.

Sam abruptly stood up as she noticed something different – Jake's eyes were slowly opening. "What is it?" Jack asked.

"He's waking up." The little boy's brown eyes were still half-lidded, but they swept from side-to-side, looking at one of his guardians, then the other. "Hey, Jake," Sam said. "We're right here with you."

He blinked once, and when his eyes closed again, they didn't reopen. "Jake?" Jack asked, but he didn't respond.

"Get Janet," Sam told him.

* * *

A minute later, the doctor hurried back over with Jack. "It's possible it was just a reflex," she warned them as she started checking the different displays.

Sam shook her head. "No, Janet, he woke up. It was just for a minute, but he woke up. He looked right at us."

"Well, his O2 stats are looking better… This could be a good sign. We'll do another scan tonight and test his breathing response in the morning."

Jack nodded. "You think he's about to wake up for good?"

She smiled a little. "Like I said, it's a good sign. We're still in the waiting game, though." Janet made a couple notes on Jake's chart before leaving to get things set up for an MRI.

Sam sighed as she sat back down in her chair. "You saw it, right?" she asked Jack. "I'm not losing my mind?"

"No, I saw it. He's just… he's still got some more healing to do."

She nodded. "Thank you, Jack."

"For what?"

"I know we haven't talked about it, but… I assume this brings up some memories you'd rather forget. Thank you for being here."

"I wouldn't be anywhere else," he assured her, then sighed as he considered the first part of her statement. "Charlie… he didn't make it to the hospital. So this doesn't exactly foster déjà vu, but…"

"It's still hard?"

He looked down at Jake, motionless and pale on the bed. He still saw Charlie sometimes when he looked at the little boy, but he was gaining strength every day that he still managed to get up, come sit here, and not lose his mind. It wasn't easy, but he WAS managing. "Yeah," he told her. "Yeah, it is."

* * *

In the morning, Janet's tests went well and they were able to take Jake off the respirator. Even though he still wasn't truly awake, the fact that he was breathing on his own was a positive sign.

Jack went to get breakfast while Sam and Abbie stayed with Jake. "When Jakey wake up?" the toddler asked as she sat on Sam's lap.

"Well, we're not sure. He's still sick, so he's sleeping so that he'll feel better."

She pouted. "I want him 'wake."

Sam hugged her. "I know you do, sweetheart. So do I."

Jack came in with a tray from the mess hall. "Okay, cheerios for the princess," he said as he picked up the bowl for Abbie, "And eggs, hash browns, and coffee for you," he added for Sam as he put her plate down on the table beside her.

"Thanks." She sat Abbie down on the side of Jake's bed and let her feed herself.

"Have you seen Carolyn yet?" Jack asked as he and Sam had their own breakfasts.

"Yeah, she came by. She wants to check my stitches and a few other things, but she said I could sleep at home tonight. I can't imagine leaving Jake, though."

"You've gotta take care of yourself," he pointed out.

"I know, but… I don't want him to be alone."

They both looked over at Abbie and Jake when they heard the toddler whimper. She'd put some of her cereal in her brother's good hand and was trying her best to steer his arm toward his mouth, but it wasn't working. Sam quickly went over and stopped her.

"Sweetie, what are you doing?"

"Jakey need breakfast," she explained, as if it were obvious. Sam took the cheerios away before she made Jake choke.

"He's sleeping, princess," Jack told the toddler. "He'll get some breakfast when he wakes up."

Abbie frowned. "He hungry?"

Sam shook her head. "He's okay. The doctors are making sure that he's not cold or hurt or hungry. He just needs to sleep so he can get well."

It didn't seem like that made her feel much better. She curled up beside her brother on the bed and closed her eyes. "Are you okay?" Jack asked her.

"Me sleep, too. Make Jakey better."

Sam smoothed her hair back. "I think knowing we're all here with him will make him want to get better as fast as he can."

* * *

Mark came a bit later and volunteered to take Abbie up to the surface and let the little girl see some sunlight and run around a little. She'd been an angel so far about being cooped up inside all the time, but they knew it wasn't fair to her.

Sam and Jack stayed with Jake, each sitting on one side of his bed. They were silent for a long while until she finally spoke up. "Have you ever wished that they were really ours?" Sam quietly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"That they were born here, to us. That we'd been there for their whole lives. That we knew every story, every memory."

Jack sighed. "Sometimes." And sometimes, despite everything they'd been through, he was glad that Jake and Abbie hadn't been his to screw up, because he knew that he certainly would have.

"I'm worried that that's always going to matter, that there's always going to be a line."

"There are other things that matter more."

"Maybe. Will they see it that way?"

"I don't know." Jack looked down as he noticed a bit of movement. It was possible he was imagining things, but he could have sworn that Jake moved. "Sam," he got her attention, motioning toward the little boy. She sat up a little straighter.

"Jake? Buddy, can you hear me?" she asked. His brown eyes slowly fluttered open and he looked around for a moment. His gaze finally came to rest on Jack, and he smiled.

"Hey, pal. We've been waiting for you to finally decide to wake up."

Jake looked to the person on his left, and Sam smiled. "Hi, sweetheart. You probably feel pretty crummy right now, but you're going to be okay." She was holding his unbroken left hand, but let go when he wiggled his fingers out. He slowly raised his hand and used his index finger to trace away a tear that she hadn't even realized had fallen.

"Hi, Mommy," he whispered.

Sam wasn't sure if he meant it, or if he was just confused from a dream. She'd lost count of the number of times over the past few months that he had he woken up in the middle of the night and forgotten that he wasn't in his home reality. "Sweetie, it's Sam," she corrected him. "And Jack's right there." She pointed to the boy's other guardian. "There was an accident, and you're at the SGC."

Jake slowly shook his head. "No," he told her. "Mommy. You're my mommy now."

Sam caught his hand again and kissed the back of it. _So I wasn't imagining it,_ she thought. She wasn't sure why this whole event had gotten him to start calling her that, but she wasn't going to question it. Not now.

"Okay," was all she told him, nodding. "Mommy and Daddy are right here with you."

Jake smiled.

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting! It was a holiday weekend and my muse ran away... but I'm back to finish up the story. As always, thanks to everyone who's been leaving feedback!  
**


	26. Falling Together

Jake wasn't able to stay awake for very long, but he woke up again a couple hours later and was a little bit stronger. Janet ran a few more tests on the little boy.

"Everything looks good so far," she told Jack and Sam as they stood together a few steps away from Jake's bed. "He may have a bit of memory loss, but there's nothing that I'm really concerned with. He has full sensation and motion in his extremities and his coordination seems okay. We'll keep watching him, but this is very positive."

Sam smiled. "Thank you, Janet."

She nodded. "This is what we were all praying for," she told them before walking away.

Mark was sitting by Jake's bed, talking with him and Abbie, who was in her brother's lap. Jack and Sam went over and joined them. "Can I have a cookie?" Jake asked as he looked up at his parents.

"A cookie?" Jack repeated. "I don't know about that. We'll check with Janet later and see what she thinks. Maybe dessert with dinner."

"Are you feeling okay?" Sam asked him. "Are you tired? Does your arm hurt? Or your leg?" He'd ended up with over twenty stitches closing a gash on his right leg.

Jake looked down at the cast on his wrist. "It hurts a little."

"Do you want me to see if you can get some more medicine?"

Jake shook his head. "No. I don't like it here. I wanna go home."

She smiled. "I know you do, but you're going to have to stay here for a little bit. You were hurt pretty badly, buddy, and we all want to make sure that you're okay."

He sighed. "Okay."

"We've got some ways to pass the time, right?" Mark asked the little boy. "I want to hear about your summer camps and your trip to DC. We've got lots to catch up on."

Jake smiled. "Yeah, Uncle Mark." He then realized something, and his smile faded. "I missed the camp picnic, didn't I?" he asked Sam.

"Yeah, buddy, you did. But that's okay. We can still go play baseball at the park once you're home. And we'll have our own barbeque there."

"Promise?"

Sam smiled. "Yes, I promise."

"When do I get to go home?"

Sam and Jack exchanged a look. It was likely that Jake would be in the infirmary for at least a week, but they were both relatively certain that he wouldn't like that answer. "Well, that's up to the doctors," Jack finally said. "But we've got a few things here that'll make it a little more like home."

"Like what?"

Sam picked up the bag that Daniel had dropped off that morning. "A couple of your books are in here. And your notebook. And we can get your blanket from your bed if you want it."

"Okay."

"And we're all here together," Jack added. "That's the important part, right, pal?"

Jake smiled. "Right."

* * *

Jake's body was still recovering, so he needed a lot of sleep. He took a few naps over the course of the day, and was still ready for bed at the normal time that evening. He'd been extremely clingy since waking up, so Sam decided to stay at the mountain for the night while Jack took Abbie home to sleep in her own bed for a change.

"I don't want you to go," Jake whined as Sam tucked him in.

"I'm not going to be far away," she promised. "If you wake up and you need anything, just tell the nurses and they'll come get me."

"You promise?"

She smiled. "I do. Cross my heart."

"Is Daddy staying, too?"

"Daddy needs to go make sure that our house is still in one piece," Jack told him, which made Sam laugh a little.

"We've been spending all our time here this week," she added. "So he needs to check on things, but he'll be back in the morning."

Jake sighed, but settled back against his pillows and didn't argue further. "Okay, Mommy,"

Sam sat on the edge of his bed. "Can I ask you something? Why did you start calling us Mommy and Daddy?"

He shrugged a little. "Because you are."

"I'm not upset, Jake. I'm really glad. I just want to understand."

He thought about it for a moment. "I decided before that I should. 'Cause you love me. And you take care of me. That makes me lucky. Then it just came out, and it sounded right."

Sam kissed his forehead. It seemed like all the things she'd been worried about weren't so important to the little boy in front of her. Maybe this complicated entity known as family wasn't really so complicated after all. "I do love you," she told him. "And I'm lucky, too, that I have you and your sister."

Jack held Jake's good hand. "I love you more than the moon and stars, pal."

He smiled. "I love you, too, Daddy."

"Sweet dreams," Sam told him as he closed his eyes.

* * *

Mark was waiting for them out in the front area of the infirmary with Abbie, who was already asleep. "Thanks for watching her," Sam told her brother as she took the toddler.

"No problem. Almost makes me miss the days when my kids were that small – almost." She laughed. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

Sam smiled down at Abbie once he was gone. "She's been so good through all of this… Although I guess she might be conditioned for having to fall asleep in strange places."

"She and her brother are going to be fine," Jack reminded her.

"I know… Jack, I've been thinking, about us and getting married."

He frowned, not liking the sound of that. "What about it?" he asked slowly.

"I know I said before that we should wait, but… if anything, this has proved that we never knew whether we're going to get tomorrow."

The color started to come back to his face. "So you don't want to wait?" he asked.

Sam shook her head. "No. Once Jake's doing better, and we can get things organized…"

Jack nodded. "Okay."

"And I want to rejoin SG-1," she added.

He frowned. "That was a bit of a topic switch."

"I know, I just… I left before because of the risks. And I know that those haven't gone anywhere, but… the risks here can have the same consequences as the ones out there. At least if I'm with the team, I'll have a chance at making a difference in the universe."

Jack smiled. "Oh, Samantha Carter, you have definitely already made a difference in the universe."

She nudged him in the shoulder. "You know what I mean."

"I do. And if it's what you want, then I say go for it."

"Yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah. The three of us will be here waiting for you."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: One more chapter left!**


	27. Epilogue

It was a beautiful, crisp, early November afternoon. As Sam watched the landscape through the window, she couldn't help but smile. The height of the fall foliage had been nearly a month earlier, but some trees still displayed their colors, and fallen leaves were scattered across the ground. Everything looked like it had come out of a postcard – and this was where she was going to get married.

"Mommy?" a voice asked, and she turned to see Abbie and Jake standing behind her. "How do I look?" Jake was already dressed for his role as ring bearer in a black suit with a white shirt and silver tie. His hair had grown back after the surgery, but they'd been keeping it in a crew cut style instead of letting it get longer. He looked like a miniature of Jack.

"You look great, little man. Who tied your tie?"

"Uncle Daniel."

"Mmm, and it shows. Come here." She adjusted the knot and smoothed the fabric. "Next time, ask Daddy. Uncle Daniel didn't have to wear a uniform."

Jake shrugged. "Okay. When do I get the rings?"

"Right before we go in. You remember how Daddy and I told you that you've gotta be really careful with them?"

"I won't drop them," Jake promised. "I don't have a cast anymore." His fractured wrist had finally been declared healed ten days earlier. The little boy had been quite a klutz during the eight weeks that his arm was immobilized.

"Just in case, we're still waiting," Sam told him.

There was a knock on the door and Janet came inside. "Time to finish getting ready," she told Sam. "We're going to have a whole bunch of really impatient people out there pretty soon."

The bride smiled. "Let's get on with the 'happily ever after'."

* * *

Cassie came in to get Abbie dressed and keep Jake occupied. Jack and Sam had really wanted to have both kids in the ceremony, but had been afraid that Abbie was too young. They'd finally decided that as long as her brother was escorting her, she wouldn't be too scared to walk down the aisle as the flower girl. Her white dress had a blue ribbon that matched her eyes tied around the waist. She loved spinning around in circles and watching the skirt flare.

"Hold still," Janet told Sam, poking her in the shoulder to get her to sit up straight. The doctor was trying to finish styling her friend's hair, but Sam kept moving around as she tried to watch the children behind her in the mirror.

"Sorry. Cassie, don't let her get too dizzy, please."

"I won't," she assured her as she made Abbie stop spinning.

"I suppose I should be glad you've been letting your hair grow out," Janet commented. Sam had stopped cutting her hair during the summer and her blonde locks now reached almost to her shoulders. "This would be far harder if your hair was shorter."

Sam laughed. "I'm just trying to help you out."

"Well, thank you."

Once hair and makeup were done, she could finish getting dressed. Her flowing, strapless white gown was perfectly accented with a sheer veil and delicate tiara. She and Janet both took a minute to admire their handiwork in the mirror.

"You look like a princess," Jake spoke up.

Sam smiled. "Thank you, buddy. Hopefully Daddy says the same thing."

"He's gonna be speechless," Janet assured her. Cassie nodded.

"Really, Sam. You look so beautiful."

They all turned at the sound of a knock on the door. "Is it safe to come in?" Daniel asked from the hallway.

"Yes," Sam replied. He opened the door just enough to stick his head in. She laughed when she saw that he had his eyes closed tightly. "Daniel!"

"I'm not a spy, I've just been sent to find out if you're almost ready."

"We are."

"Good. I'll see you inside then."

* * *

The wedding was taking place in one of the ballrooms at the mountain resort. Neither Jack nor Sam was particularly religious, so they hadn't felt compelled to have their wedding in a church. If the weather had been a bit warmer, they would have had the ceremony outside on the terrace overlooking a lake, but a cold front had come through three days earlier, so staying inside seemed like a better idea.

"Everybody ready?" Janet asked as the wedding party assembled in the hallway. She, Cassie, and Vala were bridesmaids.

"Let's do this already," Jake insisted, and Sam couldn't help but share his sentiment. The music started to play, and Jake and Abbie disappeared through the door. They could hear a few people go, "Aww," at the adorable pair of siblings.

Sam watched as Cassie went into the ballroom, then Vala. Janet gave her friend a smile before following behind them. The song changed over from Pachabel's Canon to the traditional bridal march.

"I think that's your cue," Landry said as he stood beside her, offering his arm. Sam nodded.

"Thank you for doing this, Sir."

"I think that's my line. Thank you for asking."

As her hand came to rest on his elbow, she couldn't help but think of who should have been in his place. She wasn't sure if her father would have approved of her relationship with Jack initially, but she liked to think that he would have been proud to be there on this day. She had originally planned on asking George Hammond to take Jacob Carter's place, but the retired General had died of a heart attack in September. Another reminder of why they were doing this – life was short and they needed to take advantage of every moment.

"Shall we?" Landry asked. Sam's smile returned as she nodded and they stepped into the ballroom.

* * *

Jack didn't want to admit that he was nervous as he stood at the front of the room, waiting. Daniel could sense it, and had tried to make small talk. It hadn't helped. He'd never thought that he would get the opportunity to do this again. It was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

Once the music started, he tried to relax. Jake and Abbie looked great and their fears about the toddler's shyness had luckily been unfounded. With her brother at her side, she had no problem being in front of everyone and dropping flower petals from her basket. After Cassie came down the aisle, she pulled the children over to sit with her in the front row.

He was so busy watching what was happening with them that he didn't see Vala or Janet make their entrance and didn't notice when the music changed. By the time he looked up, Sam had already walked through the doorway and Jack absolutely froze when he saw her.

_Damn, she's beautiful…_

He knew that she'd noticed his reaction from the mischievous little smile on her face as she stood beside him. "I take it you like the dress?" she whispered.

Jack just shot her a Look. _Had that been in doubt? Did she look in a mirror before she came out here?_

"We are gathered here," the minister began, "In the presence of these witnesses, to join Jonathan and Samantha in matrimony. Marriage is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly and solemnly. Into this holy estate these two persons present now come to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace." No one said a word.

"Marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of human relationships," he continued. "No ceremony can create your marriage; only you can do that – through love and patience; through dedication and perseverance; through tenderness and laughter; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate your differences, and learning to make the important things matter and let go of the rest. What this ceremony can do is to witness and affirm the choice you make to stand together."

Jake got back up and Cassie handed him the small pillow with the rings. He had a mile-wide grin as he came up and gave his treasure to the minister. "Thank you," he told the little boy. "We now bless these rings, symbols that remind us of the Sun, the Earth, and the universe. Symbols of perfection and peace that have no beginning and no end."

Jack took Sam's ring. "I take you to be my wife, my partner in life, my constant friend, and my one true love. I promise to love you without reservation, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, to stand together in times of joy and sorrow, for as both shall live." He slipped the metal band onto her finger. "With this ring, I thee wed." Sam took his ring and repeated the process. They then turned to get Jake and Abbie and have them join them at the end of the aisle.

In addition to their roles in the wedding party, they had wanted the kids to be involved in the commitments being made that day. Sure, they had been adopted months earlier but now... now they were really a family.

A little table at the side had four glass containers of sand and a fifth, larger, empty vase. "These separate vessels of sand represent all that you are and ever will be as individuals," the minister explained. "As you each pour your sand together into the fifth vessel, understand that your separate lives no longer exist. Now you are joined together as one."

Jack picked up the vial of blue sand; Sam took the red. Jake's was green and Abbie's was purple. They took turns adding to the empty vase, layering the different colors into a beautiful mix. Jake and especially Abbie needed a little assistance with theirs, but that just seemed to add to the symbolism. They were really a family now, and their new parents would always be there to help them.

"Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual containers, so will your marriage and your family be." Sam and Jack returned to their original positions at the end of the aisle, but kept Jake and Abbie with them.

"Samantha and Jonathan, in so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in matrimony, have promised your love for each other by these vows and the giving of these rings, I now declare you to be husband and wife." The minister smiled at Jack. "Well, go on!" Everyone cheered and applauded as they kissed.

"Hey, look!" Jake suddenly exclaimed, pointing out the window. They turned to see what had gotten his attention, and found that it had started snowing gently. It was still too warm for the flakes to stick, but with the mountains and trees, it was a gorgeous sight. An early winter surprise.

"Is this your magic trick?" Jack whispered to Sam. Only a couple days earlier, she'd been talking about how she couldn't wait to do winter activities with the kids for the first time.

She smiled. "It would be a good one, wouldn't it?"

"Sure would."

Someone opened the doors out to the terrace, and everyone made their way over to look. It was probably a sign that they were in for a very rough season, but at that moment nobody cared. It was beautiful – it was magical.

"So this is the start of the rest of our lives," Sam quietly told Jack as they watched Jake and Abbie try to catch snowflakes on their tongues.

He smiled. "I think most everyone here would agree – it's about time."

* * *

FIN.

**A/N: All things must come to an end. A million thanks to everyone who's been following along and especially to those who gave feedback. I really enjoyed writing this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it.**


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